> Iraqi medical researcher scheduled to speak

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Contact:
Tim Takaro, Health Sciences, SFU, 604.268.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca
Amy Hagopian, University of Washington, 206.616.4989, hagopian@u.washington.edu
Susann Camus, Health Sciences, SFU, 778.782.7017, 778.232.0297, scamus@sfu.ca

An Iraqi medical doctor and researcher whose visit to Canada was cancelled in April 2007 because his visa was refused by both the U.S. and the U.K is now scheduled to speak in Vancouver on July 20.

Dr. Riyadh Lafta’s free talk about the public health impacts and casualties of the war in Iraq will take place at 7 p.m. at SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings Street, in downtown Vancouver. The talk will be simulcast to the University of Washington’s Campus Kane Hall.

Lafta will review research showing that the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq has claimed more than 650,000 Iraqi lives. The findings were published in the October 2006 edition of The Lancet medical journal and co-authored by Lafta.

Lafta will spend a week in Canada meeting with researchers, including Tim Takaro, a medical doctor and associate professor of health sciences at SFU.

Lafta and Takaro, along with another Iraqi scientist and several scientists from the University of Washington, comprise a research team that is studying a rise in childhood cancers in Iraq. Puget Sound Partners, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiative, is funding the research.

“We’ve made travel arrangements to ensure Dr. Lafta will make it to Canada later this month so that he can give his public talk and collaborate with us on cancer research in Iraq, as well as bring his important message about the impact of the Iraq war on public health,” says Takaro.

“We’re focused on nailing down the rate of increase in childhood cancers in South Iraq from 1990 to 2006, what kinds of cancers are most prevalent, and which age groups are most affected. We are not looking at cancer causes yet. That would be a next step,” adds Takaro, an environmental health expert.

The University of Washington (U of W) in Seattle was initially scheduled to host the week-long meeting of international collaborators on this project, as the U of W launched the study with the University of Basra in Iraq.

Please note: Due to security issues, Dr. Lafta has limited time available for interviews. Please contact Susann Camus (contact info. noted above) for interview requests.

Backgrounder on Riyadh Lafta

Trained at Baghdad University College of Medicine as a physician, epidemiologist and planner.

Worked for the Iraqi Ministry of Health and conducted immunization campaigns in rural areas in Iraq for UNICEF.

After leaving the Ministry, became a lecturer, then assistant professor, professor and dean at Al-Mustansiriya University College of Medicine. Has also been a consultant to the Ministry of Health and conducted research with colleagues around the world, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

One of his most notable recent achievements is work with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University to measure “Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq” (10/04, Lancet), and then the follow up study, “Mortality After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: a Cross-Sectional Cluster Sample Survey,” (10/06, Lancet).

Both studies received widespread international attention for their efforts to establish a casualty count for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The methods used to obtain these counts required door-to-door surveying in war zones.