Iraq's health care system is close to collapse – perhaps it has already. Most hospitals are estimated to have enough medicines for between three and five weeks. Central stocks, of which there are enough for three or four months, are unlikely to be available during the conflict as transport networks are disrupted. The main health hazards to the Iraqi population are communicable diseases and maternal risk, non-communicable and chronic disorders. The risk of a measles epidemic is of specific concern in the light of falling immunisation and population movements. Reports by UNICEF and Oxfam have stressed the importance of the link between Iraq's electrical supply capacity and public health. Most Iraqi people depend on potable water and sewerage systems that rely on electricity. A legacy of the Gulf War is that electricity generation capacity is badly degraded. Further damage as a result of the current conflict could deprive millions of urban dwellers of access to clean water, leading to epidemics of preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and respiratory infections.