WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
ORGANIZATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTE
Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action
AFGHANISTAN
WEEKLY UPDATE
MAY 14, 2001
Internally displaced Persons (IDPs):
The tragedy of the IDPs in Herat has been of major interest to the international community and media
since the death of many IDPs due to the cold wave in January-February 2001. As part of the senior
UN mission to assess the IDPs sitution, WHO Representative for Afghanistan and other staff visited
the Herat location.

While the humanitarian health assistance in the IDP camps is ongoing (and should be further
continued), preventive measures (in areas from where IDPs are coming or might be coming)
should aim at first providing the same survival package at the district level.

An inter-agency assistance team is providing an essential survival package including various
humanitarian assistance items to the population in their districts. This includes registration,
food, water, clothing and preventive and curative medical services.

In the health sector, WHO proposes to activate 27 Basic Health Centers (BHCs) with training,
FFW, logistics and essential drugs in these districts and to ensure minimal referral services.

The aim is to provide essential health services to potential IDPs population in rural areas and
improve delivery of essential and appropriate care for major childhood diseases in the
Western Region.

This will be done by provision of incentives, equipment and essential drugs. In addition, the
technical skills of provincial and regional health workers on case management of childhood
illnesses, including ARI and Diarrhoea, the two major killers of under five children, will be
upgraded. . In its framework, the training of doctors and nurses for each region on proper case
management and rational use of antibiotics at all levels will be conducted, and intensified
health education campaigns will be conducted to improve knowledge on how to provide home
care to a sick child. Further supply at provincial and regional levels is also proposed.

WHO is appealing for more than six million dolloars to support this proposal. Since the work
connot be done at once, prioritisatisation of these Basic health clinics is ongoing. Partnerships
are to be negotiated.

Meanwhile, WHO is providing ongoing assistance at the IDPs camps WHO is chairing the
Health Sector committee of the IDP Management Group, which meets weekly and analyzes
health data coming from various health centers. WHO has distributed essential supplies to
the camp clinics and MOH clinics in and outside the camps. The workload of the health care
delivery system in Herat is estimated to have risen by 60-70% since October 2000. WHO
continues to reduce the vulnerability of the IDPs in all regions through training of nurses,
doctors and mid-level health workers including X-ray and lab technicians to better serve the
population and contribute to stabilisation of living conditions

In addition, for assessing regional resources for emergency preparedness and response,
WHO sent a mission to Ghazni and Kandahar provinces to start discussion with the Regional
Public Health Director to train health personnel on emergency preparedness and response.
The team would visit other regions for the said purpose.

Regarding IDPs in the Northern region, WHO team in Mazar attended an inter-agency
meeting held at the UNOCHA office. The participants agreed to jointly assess the IDPs
situation to know the IDPs priority. The survey has already started but the results are not
available at the moment.
NIDs

As part of polio eradication activities and improvement of the quality of the 3rd round of NIDs
(May 19-21) in 2001, WHO sub-offices in collaboration with MOPH, UNICEF, UN agencies
and NGOs, started training in all regions of Afghanistan for district coordinators, cluster
supervisors, social mobilizers, vaccinators and health workers to make preparation for the
forthcoming round of National Immunization Days (NIDs). The WHO offices sent missions to
all provinces to train the said personnel and to implement the 3rd round fairly. The WHO Kabul
office sent two missions to Bamyan and Parwan and Kapisa provinces. In the 3rd round
Vitamin A will also be administered to children between 6-59 months old, therefore, training
courses are established and going on well. In the central region, WHO has planned to train 92
coordinators, 577 supervisors and 3,032 volunteers.
TRAINING:

WHO by following the theme of the World Health Day 2001 "Mental Health" the WHO office in
Kabul established a three-week training course on Mental Health in Kabul for medical doctors.
Doctors
from Kabul, Ghazni, Kandahar, Mazar, Kundoz and Nangarhar provinces attended the course.
The office established 9th HIS (Health Information System) course for training doctors both male
and
female in Kabul city. Upto now, the WHO Kabul office has so far trained 200 medical doctors
from
Ministry of Public Health and NGOs clinics. The office plans to start 10th and 11th courses for
female doctors from central region in the near future. The main goals of the courses are to
introduce the new HIS formats, to train the health personnel on how to fill the formats,
how to compile data and how to present and analyse them.

WHO office in Mazar conducted a three-week training course for Village Health Volunteers
(VHVs) in Khulm District The district shoura in a meeting thanked WHO and specified the
duties and areas of the newly graduated VHVs.

WHO in Herat conducted a two-week training course for 20 VHVs in Robat Sangi District of
Herat province located 95 km north of the Herat City. The office conducted one-week training
course for 12 x-ray technicians. The course was attended by the x-ray technicians from Heart,
Farah and Badgis provinces and Shindand district.

WHO office conducted an EPI review workshop in Ariana Hotel in Kabul. Representatives of
MOPH, UNICEF and NGOs attended the workshop. The main issues discussed in the
workshop were strengthening of EPI activities, outbreak response, supervision/monitoring,
improvement of training particularly for women, safety of injection, waste disposal and district
micro-planning.
Humanitarian medical supplies:

To strengthen the health service delivery, WHO in Faizabad provided medical supply to
MOPH to be distributed to health facilities in Badakhshan province.

WHO office in Kandahar provided medical supplies to Spinboldak and Shega districts of
Kandahar and to Nimroz Provincial hospital.

WHO office in Kandahar provided a computer with a colour monitor to Kandahar HIS section,
10 wall fans, 40 meter carpets, 30 chairs, 10 tables, 95 meter curtains to the Kandahar
nursing school. The news on the WHO donation to the school was broadcast by radio Shariat
which appreciated WHO assistance with the school.

WHO Kabul office provided medical equipment and supplies to Azra District of Logar province,
Khoja Boghra Lashmaniasis clinic runs by HNI and to different health facilities and hospitals in
the Kabul City.

WHO office in Ghazni provided 6 TBA Manuals and Delivery Model to NAC to be used in
training of 50 TBAs in different districts of Southeastern region of Afghanistan, recording and
reporting formats to Maqor and Chamkani TB centers and 500 sputum containers to a TB
treatment center supported by MSF in Ghazni. WHO office in Herat provided medical supplies
to Community forum clinic in Herat, anti-Malaria drugs and lab reagents to Badghis Provincial
and Herat Regional Hospitals .
Water and Sanitation
Safe drinking water remains one of the greatest needs in Afghanistan today because about 24% of the
population has access to safe drinking water.

A joint WHO/WFP team paid a visit to Kundoz to re-assess the rehabilitation work of the
Kundoz Water Supply Project which would be implemented by WHO Kundoz office in the near
future.

Faizabad City Water Supply Project: As part of the second phase of the Faizabad Water
Supply Project, to enhance the storage capacity of the Faizabad City Water Supply System,
another distribution reservoir is being constructed. Laying of Transmission line to connect the
water supply network in new city with the distribution reservoir located beside the TV tower in
Faizabad city is underway and the programme is being successfully carried out. Laying of the
distribution network in the remaining parts of Faizabad New City is also under implementation.

The main purpose of this project is to provide safe drinking water to the new city (Faizbad), to
reduce water-borne diseases incidence. By completion of this part of the project, it is expected
that the supply of safe drinking water in Faizabad city reach 100%. The duration of this project
will be four months.

The construction work of the second water distribution reservoir is underway. It would take
four months. The purpose of the project under implementation is to reserve safe drinking
water so as to be distributed to the new city beneficiaries (40,000) as well as to fortify the
water distribution works in the old city.

The Provincial Governor of Badakhshan officially inaugurated the second phase of the
Faizabad City Water Supply Project on May 10, 2000 during a ceremony. WHO, UNOCHA,
WFP and the Faizabad Municipality are the main contributors. 40,000 people would benefit it.
The 2nd phase will connect another spring and will extend the stand posts system to cover the
new city and part of the old city. This phase would help in eliminating the utilization of the
highly polluted river water and would sharply minimize the risk of water-born diseases.

The first phase of the Faizabad City Water Supply System which was implemented in 1996
provided safe drinking water to the Faizabad old City through constructed pipe lines drawn
from springs located about 1,000 meters above the City level in the mountains at a distance of
6 km from the City. The successful completion of this phase was made possible due to the
contribution of WHO, UNOCHA, UNHCR, WFP and the Kuwait Red Crescent Society.