Decades of warfare and poverty in Afghanistan have left a healthcare system barely capable of providing citizens with basic health needs, such that Afghanistan remains one of the most under-vaccinated nations in the world, a prominent medical organization said in a report published on Sunday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) Decades of warfare and poverty in Afghanistan have left a healthcare system barely capable of providing citizens with basic health needs, such that Afghanistan remains one of the most under-vaccinated nations in the world, a prominent medical organization said in a report published on Sunday.
According to Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), one-third of Afghanistan's children have had no vaccinations whatsoever, and Afghanistan remains one of only three countries where polio has yet to be eradicated.
MSF's five-year report, which is based on the figures and personal accounts from two facilities which it oversees in the Herat and Helmand provinces, detailed how one hospital treated 3,680 cases of measles in the first seven months of 2018.
Ongoing fighting and extreme poverty are the main culprits MSF pointed out for rural families being unable to reach medical facilities for vaccination and, subsequently, for the treatment of infections.
The report said that vaccination campaigns by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) have since improved the situation somewhat.
Nearly half of the children who die in MSF-run intensive care units arrive too late for proper treatment and die of preventable causes. This is due to dangerous roads or a lack of finances, which forces parents to delay seeking medical attention.
Afghanistan's maternal mortality remains the highest in Asia, outstripped only by the impoverished nations of central Sub-Saharan Africa, as domestic birth-giving remains widespread in the country, the report details.
MSF acknowledged the efforts of national and international healthcare actors, such as the MoPH, but reported little if any improvement since the last report was published in 2015.
Afghanistan has been subjected to an endless series of wars since at least 1978.
Hopes for prospective peace were somewhat elevated when the United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement on February 29 and Taliban-Kabul talks were scheduled for March 10.
However, sporadic Taliban attacks since have killed dozens of Afghan military and police officers and jeopardizes the upcoming talks.
