Abstract
In the winter of 2002-2003, as the US government prepared to wage war against Iraq, they also quietly prepared to prevent a humanitarian disaster in that country by contracting with international aid groups, that is, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to deal with potential crises. One such organization, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), is headquartered in New York and has more than 70 years' experience rescuing refugees, the dispossessed, and the persecuted. The IRC, which maintains an Emergency Response Unit ready to respond to humanitarian crises around the world, put together several emergency response teams of health, water/sanitation, child protection, and logistics experts for Iraq. Early in a large-scale disaster, the mortality rate of a population in crisis can rise to more than 25 times the normal level. This death toll is usually due to preventable and treatable diseases such as diarrhea, dehydration, respiratory infection, and vaccine-treatable diseases, and thus rapidly implementing public health measures can decrease morbidity and mortality.
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