Afghanistan to run out of medical supplies soon, says WHO

Kabul: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that war-ravaged Afghanistan has only a few days of medical supplies left to meet the health needs of millions of people in the country, according to a media report.

The WHO said that health kits containing essential supplies, medicine for hospitals, nutritional food for acutely malnourished children and items for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic are short in supply, Voice of America (VOA) reported. Following the Kabul blasts on Thursday, trauma kits are also in high demand.

WHO's emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean region Rick Brennan said the closure of Kabul airport for commercial aircraft has led it to explore other means to transport medical supplies.

"There are multiple security and logistics constraints to doing so but we hope and expect that we will be able to bring in more supplies in the coming days, with the support of the Pakistan government. Kabul airport is not an option for bringing in supplies at this stage and so we are likely to use Mazar-i-Sharif airport, with our first flight hopefully going in the next few days," VOA quoted Brennan as saying.

Afghanistan is facing its worst-ever crisis in decades after the Taliban took control of the country. As the situation is deteriorating rapidly, humanitarian needs have surged in the country.

The UN has said that nearly 18 million people require global support and they include an estimated 3.5 million internally displaced people, among them more than half a million newly displaced this year, according to VOA.

However, Brennan has vowed that the WHO is committed to assisting the displaced and vulnerable people in Afghanistan.

"Already we are hearing that some female health workers are not attending work and that there has been a decline in the attendance of women and children at some facilities. This again highlights the need to ensure the availability of medical supplies, to support female health workers in their work, and to encourage families to bring their mothers and children to seek health care when they need it," he said.

He further said that the WHO has staff in Afghanistan's all 34 provinces and they are monitoring the health situation closely. He also stressed that most of the 2,200 health centres that WHO monitors are open.