The head of the World Health Organisation said on February 9 he had met with the Taliban’s health minister for talks on the “dire” health and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that he met Qalander Ebad for talks.
Ebad is part of a Taliban delegation visiting Geneva for a week of talks with institutions and non-governmental agencies on humanitarian access and human rights, as Afghanistan’s new rulers expand their international engagement.
The Taliban movement returned to power in Kabul in mid-August as the United States ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Since then, Afghanistan has plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging, while the halting of aid has triggered a humanitarian crisis in a country already devastated by decades of war.
Tedros had already met Ebad during his visit to Kabul in September 2021 in the wake of the Taliban takeover. “Despite some improvements since then, the health situation in Afghanistan is still dire and the acute humanitarian crisis is continuing to put lives at risk,” said Tedros. He said they discussed health needs in the country, strengthening the system, emergency preparedness and training the health workforce, to which women are central.
“The acute need in Afghanistan is to deliver diagnostics to detect the Covid-19 virus, and in particular Omicron, as the number of cases is on the rise,” Tedros said.
The Taliban delegation is in Switzerland at the invite of Geneva Call, which works to protect civilians during conflict.
The foundation is hosting a conference on Afghanistan behind closed doors from Monday to Friday, aimed at enhancing the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance in the country.
The Taliban delegation will also meet with Swiss and other European officials, plus the Red Cross during its visit — though Switzerland’s foreign ministry insisted its presence on Swiss soil did not constitute recognition of the regime.
Tedros said the WHO was supporting the Covid-19 response in Afghanistan and its efforts on polio and measles immunisation campaigns. “We also discussed progress on girls’ education at all levels, including higher education and support for joining the health workforce,” the UN health agency chief said.
“WHO calls on the international community to continue with dialogue to support the people of Afghanistan, so that we improve the health and well-being of all Afghan people.”
In October 2021, at an overcrowded hospital in Afghanistan, the few remaining doctors and nurses tried 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.
Many staff have quit after not being paid for months, while others have fled abroad fearing Taliban rule, with many women too afraid to return to work under the Taliban.
Sidiq said there had been an influx of patients as access to the hospital improved following the end of Afghanistan’s 20-year conflict, straining resources further. At just 5.5 kilogrammes (12 pounds), one 11-month-old baby at the hospital weighed just half what the infant should.
A severely malnourished five-year-old with diarrhoea and pneumonia lay motionless and was being fed through a tube. He weighed just 5.3 kilogrammes.
“I could not bring him to hospital before because there was fighting,” the boy’s mother said.
At another hospital in the northern town of Balkh, a medic said the number of patients had also shot up.
“In the past, the roads were closed due to the war and people could not come to the hospital, but now their number is much higher than before,” Muzhgan Saidzada told AFP.
“Of course, it has become more difficult to handle,” the doctor at the Abo Ali Sina Balkhi Regional Hospital said.
-Imminent collapse-
After the Taliban swept to power the World Bank suspended aid to Afghanistan, while Washington denied the Daesh access to the country’s gold and cash reserves, most of which are held overseas.
The International Monetary Fund also said Afghanistan would no longer be able to access the global lender’s resources, blocking hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other major donors such as USAID and the European Union have paused funding with no emergency support in place.
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.
-Covid woes-
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.”
One patient, a 32-year-old man, died during AFP’s visit to the hospital. He was suffering from severe pneumonia and went into cardiac arrest.
Noorali Nazarzai, a doctor at the centre, told AFP he and his colleagues — including fellow medics, nurses, managers and other essential workers — had not been paid in three months.
According to official data compiled by AFP, Afghanistan has recorded 155,000 Covid-19 infections with around 7,200 deaths till October 2021. But health experts agree a lack of testing means this is a vast underestimate.
A Johns Hopkins University tracker shows only about 430,000 people have been fully vaccinated — just one percent of the population.
-Aid hope-
As the healthcare system struggles, the country remains mired in poverty and food prices are rising.
More than 18 million Afghans — over half the population — are in dire need of aid, while a third are at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.
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 Taliban 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 Organisation supplies arriving since late September, 2021.
The WHO said it has airlifted around 185 metric tonnes of essential medical supplies, including Covid-19 and trauma kits, antibiotics, and rehydration salts.
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