HUNDREDS of Iraqis are seeking medical help after one of the worst sandstorms in living memory stretched beyond a week yesterday.
The sandstorm has caused numerous flight delays out of the Iraqi capital and last week delayed Iraq's first international bidding round for its oil fields since the 2003 invasion by a day.
Many Baghdad shops stayed shut yesterday, while police w
earing masks directed thin streams of traffic through eerily misty streets. Hospital emergency rooms were packed with people complaining about breathing problems, officials said. Eyes and throats were badly affected with asthma sufferers particularly badly hit.
"We are on alert. This is the worst dust storm we have ever had in Iraq," said Dr Jasib Lateef, operations manager at the Iraqi health ministry. "A large number of people are turning up at emergency rooms at hospitals, challenging our resources."
At least 300 people came to Baghdad's Ibn al-Nafees hospital with breathing difficulties yesterday, a hospital official said.
"The weather has been dusty for a week. If healthy people can't breathe, how can the children cope?" Eman um Ali, who had brought her asthma-suffering son for treatment, said.
Iraq has long suffered blinding sandstorms, but several years of drought have aggravated the situation. The inadequate flow of water down its once-mighty rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, which are choked by dams in upstream countries such as Turkey, has made things worse.
Water shortages make the land more dusty and the fine windblown dust gets everywhere, filtering under doors and through windows.
