5 January 2019, Kabul – World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with His Excellency Dr Ferozuddin Feroz at the Ministry of Public Health on the first day of his two-day visit to Afghanistan and commended the progress made in public health services in a challenging context. He called for the country and...

Kabul, 11 December 2018 – Orange is the colour for a world with zero tolerance for violence against women and girls. On 10 December 2018, the United Nations (UN) in Afghanistan, after marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, lit the Queen’s Palace in Babur Garden in orange from 17:00 to 20:00 to...

5 December 2018 – Afghanistan has substantial hepatitis prevalence, particularly among injecting drug users, men and women with high risk behaviours, and refugees migrating from the neighbouring countries of Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. From 2011 to June 2018, a total of 1 291 080 hepatitis C virus (HCV) tests were carried out and 18...

Kabul, 28 November 2018 – Another new polio case has been reported from Shaheed-e-Hassas district of Urozgan province, a 3-year-old boy who is now permanently paralyzed by the poliovirus. This is the second case from the same district, making the total number of polio cases in Afghanistan 20 this year so far. Fourteen cases have been reported in the south of...

Kabul, 5November 2018 – Today, polio vaccination teams will visit 5.3 million children under the age of five in 18 high-risk provinces, mainly in South and East provinces. This follows several new cases in both regions. Most recently three polio positive cases have been reported from southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan and the total...

Kabul, 30 October 2018 –Three new polio cases have been reported in the south and east regions of Afghanistan. A 5-month old female child from Paroon district of Nuristan, a 24-month-old female child from Nawzad district of Helmand, and a 14 months old female child from Miwand district of Kandahar have been paralysed by the polio wild virus.  The...

October 2018, Kabul – New mothers in Mir Bacha Kot district in Kabul have been receiving a new tool to plan their pregnancy and protect their newborn babies. Their lives are made easier by the new maternal and child health  home-based handbook for Afghanistan. More than 10 000 of the handbooks were distributed when it was introduced in the...

Kabul, 18 September 2018 – A new polio case has been reported in Kandahar. A 14-month-old boy from Loyawala will be permanently paralysed by polio. This is the 14th case in Afghanistan, and the 9th case in the southern region. The Minister of Public Health Dr Ferozuddin Feroz expressed concern that Afghanistan now has the highest number of polio...

28 August 2018, Kabul – Dr Sadiq is examining the feet of his colleague Mr Dauod. This is the first time they are learning to look for changes to the feet of diabetic patients. Dr Sadiq and Dauod came from the primary health care centre in Kandahar, they are taking turns to learn how to check for diabetic foot that would require medical...

KABUL, Afghanistan, 1 September 2018 – The Government of Afghanistan, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have today launched a nationwide vaccination campaign to protect children 13.8 million children aged 9 months to 10 years against measles.  At the...