Afghanistan’s health care system on brink of collapse: Tedros 

The development came as the United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, announced the release of $45 million from an emergency fund to support Afghanistan’s crumbling health-care system. 

“Allowing Afghanistan’s healthcare transportation strategy to autumn isolated would beryllium disastrous,” said Mr. Griffiths. “People crossed the state would beryllium denied entree to superior healthcare specified arsenic emergency caesarean sections and trauma care.” 

Kabul crisis 

Echoing that connection from the Afghan capital, Kabul, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that international funding cuts had forced wellness providers to decide “who to prevention and who to fto die”. 

After gathering elder Taliban figures, aesculapian professionals and patients, Tedros explained that a deficiency of financial support for the country’s largest wellness project, Sehetmandi, had left thousands of facilities unable to buy medical supplies and pay salaries. 

Fewer than 1 successful five of the country’s Sehetmandi facilities remained open, the WHO chief explained, though helium said that access to each communities was “no longer impeded”. 

Medicine shortages 

“This breakdown successful wellness services is having a rippling effect connected the availability of basal and indispensable wellness care, arsenic good arsenic connected exigency response, polio eradication, and COVID-19 vaccination efforts,” Tedros said, amid reports that acold concatenation aesculapian retention has been compromised. 

COVID-19 risk 

The WHO main besides noted that 9 of 37 COVID-19 hospitals person already closed, and that “all aspects” of the country’s COVID-19 effect person dropped off, from surveillance to testing and vaccination.  

Amid concerns implicit women’s rights successful the country following the assignment of an exclusively antheral Taliban interim cabinet earlier this month, Tedros insisted that women needed access to education, wellness care, and to the wellness workforce.  

“With less wellness facilities operational and little pistillate wellness workers reporting to work, pistillate patients are hesitant to question care,” helium said. “We are committed to moving with partners to put successful the wellness acquisition of girls and women, arsenic good arsenic proceed grooming pistillate wellness workers.” 

Among its operations successful Afghanistan, WHO supports an extended trauma programme that includes training, the proviso of supplies and instrumentality for 130 hospitals and 67 humor banks. 

COVID-19 vaccine challenge 

Data from WHO indicated that earlier the Taliban takeover connected 15 August, 2.2 cardinal radical had been vaccinated against the caller coronavirus successful Afghanistan.   

“In caller weeks, vaccination rates person decreased rapidly portion 1.8 cardinal COVID-19 vaccine doses successful state stay unused,” Tedros said. “Swift enactment is needed to usage these doses successful the coming weeks and enactment towards reaching the extremity of vaccinating astatine slightest 20 per cent of the colonisation by the extremity of the year.” 

The WHO apical authoritative also urged renewed enactment to eradicate polio in Afghanistan - one of 2 countries where the disease remains endemic.

Measles is also spreading, the WHO Director-General warned, but helium said that access to each communities was now possible. “With lone 1 lawsuit of chaotic poliovirus reported truthful acold this year, compared to 56 successful 2020, determination has ne'er been a amended clip to eradicate polio,” Tedros said. “However, the polio programme volition conflict to respond if the basal immunization infrastructure begins to illness astir it.” 

This meant that WHO and partners can begin a country-wide house-to-house polio vaccination campaign, combining measles and COVID vaccination too, he explained.