After fleeing ISIS attacks, Iraqi girl shunned for rare skin disease

A former Canadian intelligence officer is lobbying the government to bring an Iraqi girl to Canada due to a potentially life-threatening skin disease that has alienated her from others at a northern Iraq refugee camp.

Ian Bradbury says that eight-year-old Hanin Solo requires urgent medical attention for her ichthyosis, a non-contagious disease that makes her skin appear thick and scaly.

“Other people in the camp are afraid to be around her. They see her condition, they feel it may be contagious,” Bradbury said. “She's gotten to the point now where she feels she'll never be loved and nobody will care for her.”

The disease poses no threat to the 350,000 other refugees at the camp, but medical officials say that leaving Hanin without treatment greatly increases her risk of infection.

“Because of increased breaks in the skin barrier, they're at increased risk for infections and then (for) need more nutrition because their skin is turning over so quickly,” said Dr. Michelle Ramien, a Canadian dermatologist.

Bradbury and his aide group, the First New Allied Expeditionary Force (NAEF), have directly lobbied the government to bring Hanin to Canada, where she can receive specialized treatment and protein-rich foods, which are scarce at the camp.

With no word from the government, Bradbury and his group are now directly appealing to Canadians through social media, hoping that individual voices can help draw attention to Hanin’s case.

“Since it's a rare case, the Kurdistan hospitals have no treatment for her … and the family has no income to take her outside of Iraq and they have no abilities to do that,” said Yakhi Hamza, a former U.S. military contractor who works with the NAEF.

Hanin and her family belong to the Yazidi community, a religious group that has been specifically targeted by the Islamic State. They fled to the refugee camp after repeated attacks by ISIS militants against their home of Sinjar.

A report released Thursday by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum labelled ISIS attacks against Yazidis a “genocide.”

With a report by CTV’s Omar Sachedina in Ottawa

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  A former Canadian intelligence officer says that eight-year-old Iraqi girl Hanin Solo, seen here, requires urgent medical attention for her ichthyosis, a non-contagious disease that makes her skin appear thick and scaly.