Polio vaccinators vaccinate Afghan refugee children returning from Pakistan on 7 November 2016 at the Torkham border in Nangarhar province. Photo: WHO/S.RamoKabul 7 November 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health along with its partners WHO and UNICEF launched a polio vaccination campaign today in all provinces of the southern, eastern and...

Shafiullah’s left arm and leg were paralysed when he was 5 years old. Photo: WHO Afghanistan/Y.Khan13 October 2016 – "I will never forgive myself or any people in my district if they allow the suffering I went through to happen to other children here,” says 25-year-old Shafiullah, leaning on his blue crutches in a remote village in Kandahar...

27 September 2016 – Rockets struck a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital on 3 October 2015 in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 14 health workers and injuring 37. As a result of the attack, the hospital became dysfunctional, but the health needs remained. In October 2015 alone, the conflict in Kunduz between anti-government elements and Afghan...

Ticks are the main vector of CCHFKabul 7 September 2016 – Health and livestock authorities are concerned about the spread of a serious tick-borne viral disease called the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, World Health Organization (WHO) and...

A child receives the oral polio vaccine in Kabul. Photo: WHO/S.RamoKabul, 29 August 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health, with the suppport of WHO and UNICEF, launched today a national polio immunization campaign to vaccinate every child in Afghanistan under the age of 5. What makes this particular campaign important is that most cases of polio...

“It is our job as health care providers to help survivors” Nurse Arzo took part in the WHO gender-based violence training in Bamyan province. Photo: WHO/S.Ramo Kabul 4 August 2016 – Sarbaland, a man from the Ashkamis district of Takhar province, cut off parts of his pregnant wife’s genitals and beat her so severely that she lost her unborn baby...

Kabul 31 July 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health and WHO marked the World Hepatitis Day in Kabul today to increase awareness of the burden of viral hepatitis, its causes, symptoms and treatment. Viral hepatitis – a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E – causes acute and chronic liver disease and kills around 1.4...

Kabul, 25 July 2016 – The Ministry of Public Health, with the support of WHO and UNICEF, will hold concurrent vaccination campaigns in July and August to vaccinate around 4.3 million children under the age of 5 against polio. These vaccinations are particularly important for children because the months between May and October are Afghanistan’s...

WHO Representative Dr Richard Peeperkorn delivers his opening remarks at the TAG meetingKabul 17 July 2016 - The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio eradication convened in Kabul to review Afghanistan’s progress in polio eradication, provide recommendations for intensifying efforts to stop the circulation of wild poliovirus by the end of...

Mir Yaqoob donated blood in KabulKabul 3 July 2016 - Afghanistan is facing blood shortages during the holy month of Ramadan as fewer people are donating blood. The Ministry of Public Health, with the support of WHO, is organizing blood collection drives in Kabul to ensure sufficient blood supplies in the country’s hospitals. “Before Ramadan started, we...