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WHO supports overstretched health services as the number of Afghan returnees mounts
Polio vaccinators approach a truck to vaccinate children at the Torkham border. Photo: WHO/S.RamoKabul 20 November 2016 - As the number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan increases, health services are struggling to meet demand. Over 600 000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan this year - in October alone, more than 170 000 Afghan...
WHO-supported isolation ward opens in Kabul
Minister of Public Health Dr Ferozuddin Feroz inaugurates the isolation wardKabul 17 November 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health and WHO inaugurated a new isolation ward at Kabul Antani Hospital specializing in infection prevention. The isolation ward will ensure that people suffering from serious infectious diseases can be taken care of...
Islamic scholars in Nangarhar pledge their support for polio eradication in Afghanistan
16 November 2016 – Over 120 Islamic scholars, the ulama, gathered in a conference on 3 November 2016 in Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, to express their support for Afghanistan’s polio eradication programme. The ulama highlighted that the polio vaccine was crucial for children’s health, called on all Afghans to cooperate with health workers during polio...
Over 5.6 million children to be vaccinated against polio across Afghanistan
Polio vaccinators vaccinate Afghan refugee children returning from Pakistan on 7 November 2016 at the Torkham border in Nangarhar province. Photo: WHO/S.RamoKabul 7 November 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health along with its partners WHO and UNICEF launched a polio vaccination campaign today in all provinces of the southern, eastern and...
Shafiullah helps to battle refusals to save children from polio paralysis in Kandahar, Afghanistan
Shafiullah’s left arm and leg were paralysed when he was 5 years old. Photo: WHO Afghanistan/Y.Khan13 October 2016 – "I will never forgive myself or any people in my district if they allow the suffering I went through to happen to other children here,” says 25-year-old Shafiullah, leaning on his blue crutches in a remote village in Kandahar...
After attack on MSF, WHO and partners strengthen trauma care to save lives in conflict-ridden Kunduz province
27 September 2016 – Rockets struck a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital on 3 October 2015 in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 14 health workers and injuring 37. As a result of the attack, the hospital became dysfunctional, but the health needs remained. In October 2015 alone, the conflict in Kunduz between anti-government elements and Afghan...
Vigilance and preventive measures needed during Eid-al-Adha to reduce the risk of a deadly viral disease
Ticks are the main vector of CCHFKabul 7 September 2016 – Health and livestock authorities are concerned about the spread of a serious tick-borne viral disease called the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, World Health Organization (WHO) and...
Massive polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan targets over 9.5 million children
A child receives the oral polio vaccine in Kabul. Photo: WHO/S.RamoKabul, 29 August 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health, with the suppport of WHO and UNICEF, launched today a national polio immunization campaign to vaccinate every child in Afghanistan under the age of 5. What makes this particular campaign important is that most cases of polio...
WHO strengthens health response to gender-based violence in Afghanistan
“It is our job as health care providers to help survivors” Nurse Arzo took part in the WHO gender-based violence training in Bamyan province. Photo: WHO/S.Ramo Kabul 4 August 2016 – Sarbaland, a man from the Ashkamis district of Takhar province, cut off parts of his pregnant wife’s genitals and beat her so severely that she lost her unborn baby...
Hepatitis is a silent killer: only 1 in 20 Afghans with viral hepatitis know they have the disease
Kabul 31 July 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health and WHO marked the World Hepatitis Day in Kabul today to increase awareness of the burden of viral hepatitis, its causes, symptoms and treatment. Viral hepatitis – a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E – causes acute and chronic liver disease and kills around 1.4...
