In the early 1980s, Iraq was a middle-income and rapidly developing country with a well-developed health system. A few decades later - after wars, sanctions and a violent sectarian upsurge - child and maternal health indicators have deteriorated, its poverty headcount index is at 22.9% and diseases such as cholera have remerged. Today Iraq is beset by chronic political deadlock and a complexity of economic challenges; accordingly, all aspects of life are suffering, including health. Irrespective of the monumental investment to improve components of the health system, via national and international efforts, the health status of the population can only advance through resounding and synergistic effort in other aspects of life affecting health: the social determinants of health.
Keywords: Iraq; US invasion; health; living conditions; war.