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MSF raises concern over increase in measles cases in three provinces

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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Afghanistan has expressed concern about the rising incidence of measles in the country, saying that the provinces of Herat, Kunduz and Helmand are the most affected.

MSF said Wednesday that in the past week alone, 90 children with measles had been admitted to a special ward in Herat province.

Last week, the agency announced the opening of a special ward for measles patients at the provincial hospital, saying that it has now increased the ward to 60 beds.

Médecins Sans Frontières said in just a few days, all the beds in this ward were full of measles patients and now there is no room for other sick children.

According to MSF, Helmand and Kunduz provinces have had the highest number of measles cases in the past week.

This comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday warned that measles is on the rise among children in Afghanistan and that so far this year, at least 43,000 children have contracted the disease.

Of this, 214 children have died in the past three months from measles, WHO reported.

According to WHO, five percent of these deaths are children under the age of five, which is higher than last year.

While the Ministry of Health has not confirmed these numbers, officials have confirmed an outbreak of the disease and reported cases in Kunduz, Kabul and Helmand provinces.

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Herat Regional Hospital struggling to deal with heavy patient load

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Herat Regional Hospital has a capacity to treat about 1,000 patients a day, 650 as in-patients. However, the hospital is being stretched to its limits and is treating more than double this number of people every day, hospital officials say.

Officials say that in most wards, there are two patients per bed. They say the hospital needs to expand - that they urgently need more space and more equipment.

According to doctors, the High Care Unit has only 10 beds, when it actually needs at least 65. In addition, they say the dialysis department is only running at half-mast. It has 17 dialysis machines, but only eight are in working order.

Herat residents have also raised concern over the state of the hospital and said some departments, especially the dialysis unit and pediatrics urgently need equipment and additional space.

Afghanistan is grappling with significant health challenges marked by a fragile healthcare system and unequal access to services, particularly in rural areas.

This is due to a number of issues such as transportation difficulties, shortage of healthcare professionals, and limited access to quality healthcare services.

Despite efforts to improve the country’s healthcare infrastructure, Afghanistan continues to grapple with systemic issues that hinder effective healthcare delivery. Analysis by UN agencies of under-served areas shows that 13.2 million people in 34 provinces reside in areas where primary healthcare services are not accessible within a one-hour walking distance.

 

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Excluding Afghan women from medical institutes threatens the future of health care in the country: MSF

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The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) decision to bar women from studying in medical institutes will have far-reaching consequences for women’s health in the country, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday.

This is another stage in the removal of women from public and professional life in Afghanistan. Already, there is an insufficient number of female health care workers in the country, impacting the availability of health care, especially given the separation of hospital wards by gender. New constraints will further restrict access to quality health care and pose serious dangers to its availability in the future, MSF said in a statement.

“There is no health care system without educated female health practitioners,” said Mickael Le Paih, MSF’s country representative in Afghanistan. “At MSF, more than 50 percent of our medical staff are women. The decision to bar women from studying at medical institutes will further exclude them from both education and the impartial provision of health care.”

The medical needs in Afghanistan are huge, and more female Afghan medical staff need to be trained to address them. For this to happen, women need to have access to education. Education restrictions for women and girls put in place in 2024, 2022, and 2021 considerably reduce the number of female medical staff in the future, MSF said.

“If no girls can attend secondary school, and no women can attend university or medical institutes, where will the female health professionals of the future come from and who will attend to Afghan women when they are at their most vulnerable?” said Le Paih. “For essential services to be available to all genders, they must be delivered by all genders.”

Recently, there have been reports that the leader of the Islamic Emirate has ordered the closure of medical institutes to women. The Islamic Emirate has not yet officially commented on this matter.

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Afghanistan’s health minister visits disease control center during China visit

Jalali, in China for the World Conference on Traditional Medicine 2024, said that traditional medicine in Afghanistan needs to be regulated and integrated into modern healthcare practices

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Afghanistan’s Acting Minister of Public Health has held in depth discussions on managing diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and polio with China’s Deputy Director for Disease Control and Prevention, Shen Hongbing. 

On an official visit to China, Mawlawi Noor Jalal Jalali also discussed other issues, with Shen and other officials, such as monitoring of diseases, disaster management processes and capacity building for Afghan healthcare workers.

Jalali, who was in China for the World Conference on Traditional Medicine 2024, also toured China’s Disease Control and Prevention Center (CDC) and its National Influenza Center.

The conference, which was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Beijing, was jointly held by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese sponsors, including China’s National Health Commission.

The opening ceremony of the two-day event was attended by health officials of governments and international organizations, experts and scholars, and deputies from medical institutions. 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave a speech via video.

Addressing delegates at the conference, the ministry cited Jalali as having said that traditional medicine in Afghanistan needs to be regulated and integrated into modern healthcare practices.

He also advocated for strengthened bilateral cooperation between China and Afghanistan to enhance capacity building, experience sharing, and joint research in the sector.

Afghanistan’s health ministry has meanwhile established a Traditional Medicine Department which is currently tasked with formulating policies and guidelines to regulate and improve this sector.

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