Health

The country's high death and infant mortality rates were caused by a variety of infectious diseases, including measles, tetanus, diarrheal dehydration (for children), malaria, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis, and malnutrition. In addition, chronic liver disease, probably caused by hepatitis B virus, was endemic. In 1978 Barbara Pillsbury, an AID consultant, noted several categories of traditional healers: barbers who circumcised, let blood, pulled teeth, cauterized, and performed other curing procedures; traditional midwives; and mullahs and sayyids who wrote curative and protective amulets. Traditional herbalists prescribed and sold herbs for many different ailments and physical problems. Although some foreign and domestic health experts have decried traditional health beliefs and practices, a 1983 study of mothers in Kabul reported that breast-feeding was nearly universal.

Before the revolution cosmopolitan health care services were woefully inadequate. In 1981 about 80 percent of the country's physicians still practiced in Kabul, where the physician/patient ratio was one to 1,000. The estimated ratio for the country as a whole was one to 13,000, and some isolated northern districts reported a ratio of one to 200,000. Furthermore, 60 percent of the country's hospital beds were in Kabul. 

In mid-1985 the government reported an 80﷓percent increase in hospital beds and a 45-percent increase in the number of doctors since the revolution but asserted that health care provision still lagged far behind need. To attack the massive public health problems, the government has initiated mobile medical units composed of nurses and physicians and has instituted medical brigades of women and young people. In 1985 problems with public health programs and health care were discussed openly in the Afghan press. The news media reported attempts on the part of the government to expand health care into the provinces, but it seemed that most new clinic construction occurred in Kabul.

Two additional public health problems demanded attention in 1985. War casualties, often children, were killed or severely wounded and had no source of nontraditional medical aid. Injured mujahidiin and their supporters also had difficulty in securing medical assistance and usually had to be transported back to their bases in Pakistan. Foreign humanitarian organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), operated clinics in the country that were open to all, including mujahidiin. The small number of volunteers, while commendable, was inadequate to create much of an effect. The second public health factor, drought, threatened to produce a very serious food problem. Drought is a continuing problem in arid Afghanistan. In the severe 1970﷓71 drought scores of thousands of people died. With the additional disruption brought to agricultural production and distribution by the war, the 1984 drought was expected to cause great suffering. 

It appeared that the government was trying to ameliorate the terrible public health situation. The deluge of Afghan government propaganda, matched by an equal amount of mujahidiin and Western propaganda, made it impossible to assess the situation accurately in 1985.

This page maintained by Luke Griffin and last updated on 01/14/2002 .