Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Health

Health

Why does the Incidence of Polio Vary? A comparative study of two districts in Helmand (Part 2)

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

In this second of two case studies exploring why polio vaccination varies between apparently quite similar districts in Afghanistan, we look at two neighbouring district in Helmand province, Nawa, with its rare incidences of polio since 2001, and Nad Ali, which has seen one of the highest numbers of polio cases in the country. A […]

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Why does the Incidence of Polio Vary? A comparative study of two districts of Kandahar (Part 1)

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan are now the only two countries in the world still suffering from polio, an infectious viral disease that strikes children, causing temporary or permanent paralysis and, in some cases death. Despite the availability of a vaccine since the 1960s and national vaccination since 1978, polio remains a persistent challenge in Afghanistan. […]

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Living with the Taleban (2): Local experiences in Nad Ali district, Helmand province

AAN Guests •

What is it like to live in an area controlled by the Taleban? How does their rule affect your life and can you influence what they do? To answer these questions, we embarked on a research project scrutinising three districts in depth, looking at the local dynamics of citizen/Taleban interactions, the structure of Taleban government and whether local […]

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Covid-19 in Afghanistan (7): The effects of the pandemic on the private lives and safety of women at home

Khadija Hossaini •

Covid-19 has had an alarming effect on Afghanistan, exacerbating poverty and reducing access to health care, in addition to the deaths and illness. The pandemic has also had specific consequences for women, particularly during lockdown, including increased levels of domestic violence and reduced access to schools and medical care. AAN’s Khadija Hossaini discovered that women […]

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Covid-19 in Afghanistan (6): A closer look at the MoPH’s official figures

Rohullah Sorush •

When AAN first tried to map the trends in the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in Afghanistan in March 2020, almost three months after the first outbreak in China, we found that the country had only been moderately affected. Since then, the number of confirmed infections and deaths have risen, but numbers remain relatively modest, particularly […]

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One Land, Two Rules (11): Delivering public services in insurgency-affected districts – a synthesis report

Kate Clark •

In many parts of Afghanistan, the issue of who is in control is not straightforward: it may be the government or the Taleban or a mixture of both. Yet despite this – and the ongoing conflict ­– many public services continue, including health and education. How that works in practice is a question we wanted […]

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One Land, Two Rules (5): The polio vaccination gap

Jelena Bjelica •

While researching the delivery of health, education and other services in districts affected by the insurgency, we found that three of our featured districts, in Helmand, Nangrahar and Kunduz provinces, had seen cases of polio leading to paralysis in the last five years. There is no cure for polio, but there is an effective vaccination, […]

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One Land, Two Rules (1): Service delivery in insurgent-affected areas, an introduction

Kate Clark • Jelena Bjelica •

The Taleban today control or influence whole swathes of Afghanistan. Estimates of exactly how much vary, but in the vast majority of Afghanistan’s provinces, control is split between government and insurgency. What that means for local people in terms of services usually provided by a state is the subject of a new research project by […]

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Under Pul-e Sukhta bridge. Photo: Qayoom Suroush

Under the Bridge: The drug addicts’ scene in Kabul

Qayoom Suroush •

Addiction to drugs is an often underestimated phenomenon in Afghanistan. Thousands of people become addicted to drugs every year in a country that is the world’s major producer of opiates, although many of them developed the habit while living abroad as refugees. In Kabul, they concentrate in western areas of the city, living in veritable […]

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Despite Risks, Faith Endures in Traditional Afghan Cures

AAN •

IWPR, 19 May 2014 In remote villages of southeastern Afghanistan where people have no access to health centres, so-called village doctors, barbers and traditional bonesetters still perform services from circumcisions to tooth extractions or resetting dislocated limbs. According to modern doctors, hundreds of people die from such practices every year across Afghanistan.

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Polio’s last stand on the Afghan-Pakistan border

AAN •

Express Tribune/AFP, 7 March 2014 Important reminder in election times: about one of the many unresolved problems that is even aggravated by the ongoing conflict – polio. Afghanistan and Pakistan are two of the worldwide only three countries where it is still endemic, and with conflict-related incomplete coverage by vaccination, new polio cases have emerged […]

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Ambitious U.S. hospital project in Afghanistan faces failure

AAN •

Reuters, 5 March 2014 An ambitious US-funded, $60 million project to build hospitals has run into the ground, with the largest hospital ever planned in the country unlikely to open in full, U.S. and Afghan officials said. "The USAID project started in 2008 and aimed to meet the medical needs of over two million Afghans by […]

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