The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm on Afghanistan's worsening humanitarian crisis, calling it one of the most severe globally due to widespread food insecurity and a growing substance use epidemic affecting 4 million people. The warning follows a three-day visit by WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, who engaged with the country's de facto authorities to address the escalating challenges.

“The issue of addiction in Afghanistan is a very large one. In line with my regional priorities, we will continue to work with our partners to ensure we can provide the help and support needed to make sure that these patients have a safe track back into normal life and are fully integrated within their communities,” Dr Balkhy said.

“Together with the country’s health authorities and our partners, we can make this happen and ensure a better and healthier life for the people of Afghanistan.”

According to the WHO, during her visit, Dr Balkhy travelled to Mazar-e-Sharif in the country’s northern region, where she inaugurated the Balkh 50-bed Women and Children Drug Addiction Treatment Centre, one of 12 drug addiction treatment centres receiving vital support from WHO and partners. 

She also visited the 50-bed Infectious Diseases Hospital, interacting with patients and health workers, where she stressed the critical importance of enhancing medical staff capacities and improving accessibility to health care services for vulnerable populations throughout Afghanistan, the statement read.

Dr Balkhy remarked that most of the patients she visited in the infectious disease hospital in Balkh suffered from vaccine preventable diseases such as tetanus, meningitis with tuberculosis, and hepatic failure and liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis B. 

The, she stressed, called for greater efforts to ensure increased vaccine take-up and Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).  

During her engagements on polio eradication, Dr Balkhy and other representatives from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) underlined the global commitment to end polio and stressed the need for renewed political and administrative commitments and stronger collaboration to finally interrupt transmission of wild poliovirus.

“These important country visits offer a unique opportunity for global and regional leaders to strengthen partnerships with national polio programmes, reinforce accountability and demonstrate that global eradication is within reach. Afghanistan’s commitment to stopping the current polio outbreak in the south and improving vaccination is vital to achieving this goal,” Dr Balkhy said.

Acknowledging the importance of close coordination between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which form a single epidemiological bloc, for polio eradication and other health priorities, Dr. Hanan Balkhy is facilitating a health dialogue between the two nations. This effort involves the active engagement and support of the national leadership in both countries.

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