The World Health Organization (WHO) in Afghanistan is deeply concerned that funding shortages could force the closure of 80 percent of WHO-supported essential health care services across the country. 

Millions of people, including vulnerable populations such as women, children, the elderly, the displaced and returnees, will be left without access to critical medical care, the organization said in a statement.

As of 4 March 2025, 167 health facilities had shut down due to funding shortages, cutting off lifesaving medical care to 1.6 million people across 25 provinces.

WHO warned that without urgent intervention, another 220 facilities could close by June 2025, leaving an additional 1.8 million Afghans without access to primary health care. 

In the worst affected regions – Northern, Western and Northeastern Afghanistan – more than a third of health care centres have shut down, raising alarms about an imminent humanitarian crisis.

“These closures are not just numbers on a report, they represent mothers unable to give birth safely, children missing lifesaving vaccinations, entire communities left without protection from deadly disease outbreaks,” said WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Afghanistan Dr Edwin Ceniza Salvador. 

“The consequences will be measured in lives lost.”

Afghanistan is already battling multiple health emergencies, including outbreaks of measles, malaria, dengue, polio and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. 

Without functioning health facilities, efforts to control these diseases are severely hindered. Over 16 000 suspected measles cases, including 111 deaths, were reported in the first two months of 2025. With immunization rates at critically low levels (only 51% for the first dose of the measles vaccine and 37% for the second), children are at heightened risk of preventable illness and death.

While some donors continue to support Afghanistan’s health sector, funding has been significantly reduced as development aid priorities have shifted. The needs, however, remain immense, and current support is not enough to sustain critical health care services for millions of Afghans, WHO stated.

“This is not just about funding. It is a humanitarian emergency that threatens to undo years of progress in strengthening Afghanistan’s health system,” said  Salvador. 

“Every day that passes without our collective support brings more suffering, more preventable deaths and lasting damage to the country’s health care infrastructure.”

The World Health Organization said Monday Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its $500 million commitment to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

The WHO said the funds, initially pledged in April 2024, will be disbursed to help end the wild form of polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan and stop outbreaks of variant polio, Reuters reported.

Wild polio — a naturally occurring form of the viral disease — is endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which together reported 99 cases last year, according to the WHO. Variant polio is caused by the weakening of the oral polio vaccine.

The GPEI hopes to declare an end to the wild virus and the vaccine-derived variant by 2027 and 2029, respectively, compared with a previous deadline of 2026 for both forms.

A newly discovered bat coronavirus uses the same cell-surface protein to gain entry into human cells as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, raising the possibility that it could someday spread to humans, Chinese researchers have reported.

The virus does not enter human cells as readily as SARS-CoV-2 does, the Chinese researchers reported in the journal Cell, opens new tab, noting some of its limitations, Reuters reported.

The scientists said that like SARS-CoV-2, the bat virus HKU5-CoV-2 contains a feature known as the furin cleavage site that helps it to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor protein on cell surfaces.

In lab experiments, HKU5-CoV-2 infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways.

In further experiments, the researchers identified monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs that target the bat virus.

Bloomberg, which reported on the study earlier on Friday, said the paper identifying the bat virus had moved shares of COVID vaccine makers. Pfizer shares closed up 1.5% on Friday, Moderna climbed 5.3% and Novavax was up about 1% on a down day for the broader market.

Asked about concerns raised by the report of another pandemic resulting from this new virus, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, called the reaction to the study “overblown.”

He said there is a lot of immunity in the population to similar SARS viruses compared with 2019, which may reduce the pandemic risk.

The study itself noted that the virus has significantly less binding affinity to human ACE2 than SARS-CoV-2, and other suboptimal factors for human adaptation suggest the “risk of emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated.”