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STORY: WHO / AFGHANISTAN TEDROS
TRT: 2:48
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2021, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
1. Wide shot, outside the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital in Kabul
2. Various shots, doctors examining patients inside the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital in Kabul
3. Various shots, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, visiting the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital in Kabul
4. Various shots, WHO Director-General meeting Naseema, an Afghan woman receiving critical care in the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan Hospital
5. Various shots, WHO Director-General leaving the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, visited the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital in Kabul, whose health workers treated many people tragically injured in the recent airport attack.
The visit was part of a larger mission to Afghanistan where they witnessed the immediate needs of the Afghan people first-hand and meet with stakeholders to define ways to urgently scale up the health response.
WHO supports an extensive trauma programme in the country that provides trauma-related training, supplies and equipment for 130 hospitals and 67 blood banks.
The Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital is one of the facilities that has benefitted from this programme. The trauma response training and mass casualty management planning that WHO supported helped the hospital respond effectively after the tragic recent airport attack.
The hospital is facing an acute shortage of supplies and many staff have not been paid in months.
Cuts in donor support to Afghanistan have left thousands of health facilities without funding for medical supplies and salaries for health staff. Many facilities have reduced operations or shut down. This breakdown in health services is having a rippling effect on the availability of basic and essential health care, as well as on emergency response, polio eradication, and COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
At the conclusion of the visit to Afghanistan, Dr. Tedros and Dr. Al-Mandari warned that the country’s health system is on the brink of collapse. They reiterated WHO’s long-term commitment to advancing the health of all Afghans and reminded all stakeholders of our collective obligations today and in the months and years ahead.
WHO is playing a leading role coordinating health actors in Afghanistan, including the Ministry of Public Health and more than 50 organizations. Since 30 August, eight separate shipments of almost 170 metric tonnes of life-saving health supplies have been delivered with the support of Qatar, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and the World Food Programme.
WHO particularly emphasizes the need for women to maintain access to education, health care, and to the health workforce. With fewer health facilities operational and less female health workers reporting to work, female patients are hesitant to seek care. WHO is committed to working to invest in the health education of girls and women, as well as continue training female health workers.
