At an overcrowded hospital in Afghanistan, the few remaining doctors and nurses try urgently to treat skeletal babies and malnourished children packed side by side on beds. The country’s healthcare system is on the verge of collapse following the Taliban takeover in August when international funding was frozen, leaving the aid-reliant economy in crisis.
“We lack everything. We need double the equipment, medicine and staff,” said Mohammad Sidiq, head of the paediatric department at the Mirwais hospital in the southern city of Kandahar, where there are twice as many patients as beds. Leading aid agencies now say the health sector, which was primarily run by NGOs with international funding, faces “imminent collapse”.
HealthNet TPO, a Dutch aid agency which runs the Afghan Japan Hospital in the capital Kabul, said its 2,700 healthcare workers in Afghanistan would go unpaid and services would stop unless emergency money is provided. At least 2.6 million people rely on the group for medical services at its 100 health centres and hospitals across the country.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said more than 2,000 health facilities had already been shuttered across the nation. At least 20,000 health workers are not working, or are doing so without pay, it said, including over 7,000 women.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 continues to spread across the country, with few resources to bring it under control. Maybe in a month, we will not be able to provide for our Covid-19 patients,” said Freba Azizi, a doctor for Kabul’s only dedicated coronavirus treatment centre at the Afghan Japan Hospital.
“The death rate of Covid-19 patients will increase,” she told AFP. “We will see dead bodies on a daily basis.”
The international community has pledged $1.2 billion in humanitarian assistance, but it is unclear how and when the money will reach Afghanistan.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he believed the cash injection could be used as leverage with the Islamist extremists to exact improvements on human rights, amid fears of a return to the brutal rule that characterised the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.
Some lifesaving aid has started to trickle in, with several aircraft carrying UNICEF, Save the Children and World Health Organization supplies arriving since late September. The WHO said it has airlifted around 185 metric tonnes of essential medical supplies, including Covid-19 and trauma kits, antibiotics, and rehydration salts.
Source: France
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