Health
White House defends Ivanka Trump’s personal travel amid lockdown
The White House has defended Ivanka Trump’s personal trip to New Jersey last week even as federal guidelines advise Americans to remain at home.
The president’s eldest daughter and her family traveled from Washington DC to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster to celebrate Passover.
“Her travel was not commercial,” the White House said. “She chose to spend a holiday in private with her family.”
Both the nation’s capital and New Jersey are under stay-at-home orders.
Ms. Trump, her husband and fellow administration adviser Jared Kushner, and their three children went to “a closed-down facility considered to be a family home”, the statement to US media said.
The White House added that the “travel was no different than had she been traveling to/from work”, and “the location was less populated than the surrounding area near her home” in Washington.
According to current federal coronavirus guidelines, people should “avoid discretionary travel, shopping trips, and social visits”.
There are currently 653,825 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the nation, with nearly 31,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Washington DC has been under a stay-at-home order since 1 April, with residents told to leave home for “essential” travel only.
New Jersey has been a hotspot for the outbreak, with over 71,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,100 deaths – second to its neighbor, New York, which is the epicenter of the pandemic in the US.
Source: BBC News
Health
Balkh health officials report sharp increase in number of cancer patients
Balkh Public Health Department officials say there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with cancer in the province.
“In 1401, about 2,613 OPD (out patient department) cases were registered with us. In 1402, these figures were 4,912 cases,” said Ehsanullah Kaliwal, the head of the oncology department at Balkh Regional Hospital.
Some doctors say genetic factors, environmental pollution, arbitrary use of medicines, and excessive consumption of meat were reasons for the sharp increase.
One doctor said cancer was also hereditry.
However, a large percentage of cancer patients in Balkh have stomach cancer. Many of them have appealed for the government to improve treatment facilities.
According to health officials, in the first month of this solar year (April), 423 cancer patients visited this hospital for treatment.
Health
Majority of Afghans with mental disorders are women: officials
Based on last year’s data, 52 percent of people with mental disorders in Afghanistan are women, the Ministry of Public Health said.
However, after the Islamic Emirate took over the country and with the improvement of nationwide security and the provision of better health services, mental disorders have decreased, the ministry said.
“Overall, the mental security of men and women in Afghanistan is not ensured and their mental security is disturbed. According to the figures shared with us, in 2023, 52 percent of the visitors for mental disorders were women,” said Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health.
“Generally speaking, we can say that compared to the past, the instances of mental illnesses have decreased,” he added.
People suffering mental disorders mostly refuse to share their problem, willingly or unwillingly.
“There are many problems at home; We are poor. I finished school, but didn’t find any job,” Ansar, a mentally ill person, said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of Afghanistan’s population suffers from mental distress.
Factors such as unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, ban on girls’ and women’s education and work, and drugs are said to be key contributors to mental distress.
Health
Over 1 million women in Afghanistan malnourished last year: WFP
A total of 1.2 million women in Afghanistan were malnourished last year, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.
Mona Shaikh, head of nutrition at WFP Afghanistan, said that the number of malnourished women is expected to increase this year.
On malnourished children, she said that their number will reach 3 million this year, but WFP will be able to assist only 1.6 million of them.
WFP warned that after foreign assistance cuts last year, it saw a rise in children’s admissions to malnutrition clinics in Afghanistan.
More than 23 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan this year, according to the United Nations. Over half of them are children.
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