KABUL (SW) – The World Health Organization has warned of crumbling health system in Afghanistan.
In its latest report on the access of Afghan citizens to health services, the World Health Organization has announced the complete or partial suspension of 97 health centers in the country.
These health departments, which include 79 mobile units and 18 fixed centers, have stopped their activities due to the prevention of women from working in domestic and foreign non-governmental institutions by the Islamic Emirate.
The World Health Organization has announced that the suspension of these departments has deprived nearly 500,000 people of access to urgent and vital health services.
It said Afghanistan experienced multiple infectious disease outbreaks in 2022, including a historical nationwide measles outbreak, affecting 77,210 people, and an acute watery diarrhea (AWD) outbreak resulting in 242,562 cases. Also, there were 1,266 cases of dengue fever reported in Nangarhar, Laghman and Kabul and 993 suspected pertussis cases in the winter, which is a significant increase in cases.
The country also experienced re-occurring natural and man-made disasters such as the 5.9 magnitude earthquake in June 2022 that killed more than 1,000 people, and an atypical surge of floods that affected more than 110,000 people. Furthermore, the security environment remains tense and unpredictable causing mass casualty events, such as an explosion at the Kaaj Education Center in Kabul in September.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health has emphasized that the existing health centers in the structure of this ministry continue to operate without interruption.
Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health, told Salam Watandar: “Of course, some institutions have stopped their activities based on a misunderstanding that they did not understand, and some of these institutions have restarted their activities.”
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