Kenny Gluck.(Interview)

The war in Iraq seriously damaged the country's clean-water supply and sewage-treatment systems, causing a wave of diarrheal diseases, including but not limited to cholera. Although the World Health Organization has confirmed only four cholera cases in Basra, local hospitals have identified dozens of victims, prompting the WHO to declare a cholera "outbreak" in southern Iraq. If identified early, cholera is treatable. But Iraq's hospitals remain in a chaotic state, facing shortages of doctors and supplies. Kenny Gluck, the director of operations for Medecins sans Frontieres, the international humanitarian group, recently returned from Basra, where his team of aid workers is helping to restore the health-care system of Iraq's second largest city. Gluck spoke with NEWSWEEK's Malcolm Beith in mid-May. Excerpts:

Is Basra on the verge of a cholera epidemic?

We don't think so yet, but it's really hard to tell. We're looking at the demographics of the [current] cases to see whether this is really out of the normal endemic pattern for cholera in that area. Cholera has been [in Basra] before.

It's been controlled in the past, right?

Yes. The health-care staff [in southern Iraq] are accustomed to dealing with cholera. But right now, the public-health system is in such disarray that they've lost the capacity to deal with even common problems. For me, it's shocking that the hospital-supply [system] has not yet been re-established when the world's biggest logistics machine is operating there.

You're referring to the Coalition forces.

Yes. It's not complicated stuff, but they haven't bothered to provide hospitals with what they need to keep functioning. The doctors there are very worried [about cholera]. They told us, "Yes, we could deal with it very easily, but if we don't get the supplies we need, it's going to turn into a very dangerous [situation]."