BAGHDAD, June 22 (IslamOnline.net) - With open uncontrolled borders and lack of medical tests to foreigners crossing into, the war-torn Iraq is facing two deadly threats, namely AIDS and SARS.

“Iraq was purely clean and devoid of AIDS, with an exhaustive testing program in special centers on the borders that were meant to ban anyone contracted with the disease in,” Eissa Abdel-Nour, of the Health Protection Department, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, June 22.

Only 78 AIDS-infected cases were registered among the 25 million population of the country, amid tight restrictions and tough measures.

But after the U.S. and British forces rolled into on April 9, triggering large scenes of chaos and anarchy in the country, health turned down the trajectory amid absent supervision and widespread looting and thievery that extended even to hospitals.

“The threatening danger of epidemic diseases came from women servants coming from South Asia to Iraq by dubious offices run by Israeli parties,” said an official source to IOL on condition of anonymity.

“These offices seek to open brothels in the country disguised under different names and for goals far beyond just sending female servants here,” the source said.

The Iraqi official added that the poor security and health situation gave free hands for foreigners to “come in and out any time, and without the supervision of anyone.”

With such lamentable snapshots, the AIDS is much deemed by health experts in as a genuine danger beyond control in Iraq.

“AIDS disease is now much larger than to be contained for two main reasons; the unavailability of vaccines or treatments and the shortage of aid to medical cadres,” said Dr. Taha Al-Qaderi, a staffer of the Health Protection Centre.

Qaderi, who had worked in the Iraq-Iran borderline medical centre, lamented that spread of SARS (Syndrome for Acute Respiratory Disease) remains a possibility given the current deteriorating situation featured by lawlessness and anarchy.

“We could not assure the country is free of the SARS, as we have no information as to who comes in and leaves out.”

Cholera is ranked alongside the plague and smallpox as one of the most fearsome diseases.

“What really does matter is the occupying authorities not taking enough action to fight this acute diarrheal disease,” said Qaderi, adding that stocks of drugs ran low on demands of hospitals in southern areas.

Many Iraqis are resentful at the U.S. occupation, now in its third month, arguing that the situation is much worse since the U.S. and British forces trundled into and acted in disregard to problems plaguing the Iraqis.

“The aide to U.S. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer had promised us urgent aid to all hospitals three weeks ago,” said Qaderi.

But none of the promises have turned into reality so far, Qaderi said in a purple face.

With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime following the invasion, many Iraqi hospitals have been badly looted, and are also overburdened by the number of casualties.

Meanwhile, the nation is suffering from impure water supplies, uncollected garbage and a lack of electricity.

The Iraqis also brace for a fresh tragedy, corpses which had not been buried since the end of the aggression.

In Al-Adli medical center, some 80 corpses decayed absolutely and the stench of death drifted away in the vicinity that IOL reporter - even masked - did not even managed to take photos.

“We could not get rid of them, as dozens of families step into here every day in search for their relatives,” said Eidan Nuri, a worker at the center.

As if this tragedy is not enough, continued power cuts leave more problems even to neighbors.

“We could not stand this foul odor, especially that children used to play not so far, said the sad-faced Haytham Sobhy.

But children have enough to suffer from since the end of the U.S.-British aggression on their oil-rich country.

Hospitals, due to the sharp lack in medical care and medicine, became no more than a place for children to die. Doctors also are unpaid and exhausted.

While the ailment "may sound trivial, in Iraq it kills," said the agency's spokesman, Geoffrey Keele, noting that 70 percent of child deaths before the war were the result of diarrhea or respiratory infections.

He said cholera, whose symptoms include heavy diarrhea leading to dehydration and possible death in children, was also on the rise with 66 confirmed cases in Basra, southern Iraq.

Other diseases such as dysentery and typhoid, also spread through contaminated water and food, are "becoming a real problem for children," Keele said.