WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Special Report- Emergency Health Supplies
February 11, 2002
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Emergency Health Supplies Saving Lives
In the northeast of Afghanistan, 50% of the area is inaccessible for most of the
year. Like other remote areas of Afghanistan, villages and towns in Badakhsan
province can be cut off for months at a time during harsh winter months. Heavy
snowfalls block roads, making it impossible for local populations to secure
essential supplies, including drugs, and medicines. In many areas, there are
simply no roads at all. Of the million inhabitants of Badakshan, half have no
access any health services.
According to Dr. Katja Schemionek, of the WHO sub-office in Faizabad, 450,000
people living in areas of Badakshan rely on the international community to
provide them with essential medical supplies needed to survive. Recently, the
World Health Organization dispatched 13 emergency health kits to Faizabad to
be forwarded to the most remote areas in Badakshan. In early November, three
of the kits were carried over the snowy mountain passes by donkeys loaded with
packs on their backs. No other means of transportation was available at that
time.
The health supplies for Badakshan were
provided as part of the WHO’s emergency
response to the Afghanistan crisis. Since
September 11, 2001, WHO has made sure
nearly three million Afghans have had
access to essential medicines.
In a humanitarian crisis, food, shelter, and
water are the essential components needed
to save lives. Without medicines to treat
common diseases, however, fatality rates
can skyrocket. In winter months, cold weather brings life-threatening diseases,
such as pneumonia, which is difficult to treat without antibiotics.
The supply of essential medicines and supplies to Afghanistan is critical
because many Afghans are not able to purchase required medicines. In some
cases, patients will buy the initial doses of drugs needed, but be unable to pay
for the medicine required to complete treatment.
Helping Afghans survive and improve their lives is a key concern of WHO.
Shortly after the crisis began in Afghanistan this autumn, a Central Asia Crisis
Unit was established in the Emergency and Humanitarian Action department of
the World Health Organization in Geneva. One of this unit’s primary tasks was to
make sure Afghans have access to health supplies throughout the crisis, and
winter months to tackle the diseases that ravage the Afghan people. The biggest
killers are measles, acute respiratory infections, pregnancy related
complications, diarrhoea, and tuberculosis. Emergency health kits equip
hospitals and clinics with the supplies needed to treat these diseases, and offer
other essential health services.
WHO sends three types of health packages to Afghanistan and the region:



Emergency Health Kits (Essential drugs for 10,000 people for three
months)
Burn Dressing Modules (40 sterile dressings for burn cases)
Trauma Kits (Surgical supplies for 100 cases)
Emergency Health Kits make up
the bulk of WHO’s relief effort for
Afghanistan. 357 have already
been sent or are in the pipeline.
This breaks down into 291 for
Afghanistan, 20 for Iran, 25 for
Pakistan, 7 for Turkmenistan, 7 for
Tajikistan, and 7 for Uzbekistan.
The kits are compiled by the
manufacturer IDA (International
Dispensary
Association)
in
Holland and sent by airfreight to
Pakistan, Iran, or Tajikistan from where they are transported to the neediest
areas. This week, WHO officials in Herat will send supplies by aircraft to one of
the most remote areas of Afghanistan, Ghor province. Otherwise, health supplies
are transported mostly by road or donkey to the remote areas.
Each Emergency Health Kit contains 24 boxes weighing about one ton in total.
The supplies have been carefully chosen, and are designed to provide the types
of medicines a typical population of ten thousand people would be likely to
require over a three-month period.
The contents include essential drugs to treat infectious diseases such as
pneumonia, diarrhoea, skin diseases, and gynaecological infections. Minor
surgical equipment to treat bone fractures, and injuries are also included.
Midwifery sets including forceps, and scissors help ensure safe deliveries.
Other health kit items include material to keep hospitals and clinics in functioning
order, such as gloves, feeding tubes, and perfusions to be delivered
intravenously. Emergency health kits enable health workers to treat a vast array
of diseases including asthma, malaria, allergies, peptic disorders and even
worms. Each health kit costs $4,100, with an additional $2,500 on average for
transportation expenses.
A trauma kit contains enough surgical equipment to perform operations on one
hundred patients. In a country which experiences hundreds of landmine injuries a
day, emergency surgeries can be frequent. One part of the trauma kit contains
drugs required for anaesthesia and the second part contains surgical
instruments, such as scalpels, needles and syringes. These kits are often used
for amputations or to perform emergency care for appendicitis. Each trauma kit
costs $11,500.
Burn kits are compiled by Medecins san Frontieres for WHO and cost $125 each.
They contain burn cream, gauze, dressings, and cotton swabs. Burns from
cooking are, unfortunately, quite common in Afghanistan. In particular, women
are vulnerable to burns from cooking oil. Burn kits also treat mine victims and
war injuries.
The total cost to date for the supply of this material has been more than 2 million
dollars. Many health clinics and hospitals would not have been able to provide
even the most rudimentary services to needy populations throughout the past
several months without these supplies.
In the months ahead as Afghanistan moves from an emergency to a
reconstruction phase, it is important that the provision of essential health
supplies also adapt to the developing situation. In 2002, WHO will work to help
the Afghan Ministry of Health develop an essential drugs programme at an
estimated cost of $25,000,000. This includes a system for buying and distributing
safe and reliable drugs. By combining emergency relief, and long-term planning,
the WHO is working to ensure that all Afghans are able to receive the medicines
needed to save and improve their lives.