The Deaths of Children

For most parents, the loss of a child would be their greatest tragedy. In Iraq, tragedies such as these increased immediately after the Gulf War according to a 1992 New England Journal of Medicine article titled Effect of the Gulf War on infant and child mortality in Iraq. According to the article, the increase of economic embargo's lead to the "malnutrition and morbidity among Iraqi children after the onset of the Persian Gulf war." Statistics outlined by "survey['s]of 271 clusters of 25 to 30 households" report "The age-adjusted relative mortality for the period after the war began, as compared with the period before the war, was 3.2 (95 percent confidence interval, 2.8 to 3.7)." These startling figures could provide additional causes to the increased turmoil in the region, as well as U.S.-Iraqi tensions. In conclusion the New England Journal of Medicine states "These results provide strong evidence that the Gulf war and trade sanctions caused a threefold increase in mortality among Iraqi children under five years of age. We estimate that more than 46,900 children died between January and August 1991."