New Delhi:
Afghanistan under the Taliban rule is sitting on a COVID19 time bomb that can go off anytime and the consequent spread of the infections once triggered would be near impossible to control.
While the speed of vaccination in the country was already quite low, the Taliban factor has come to further complicate the situation, perhaps beyond redemption, given the extremist group’s aversion and hostility towards vaccination in general.
The WHO and several medical experts have expressed their fear of a rapid and uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in Afghanistan.
How grim the situation already was when the Taliban took over and how it has been compounded manifold due to the takeover can se gauged from that fact that WHO recorded 152,411 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7,047 deaths in Afghanistan between 3 January and 19 August. On 15 August, the Taliban took over the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The WHO had said in an update on August 17: “As the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate rapidly, WHO is extremely concerned over the unfolding safety and humanitarian needs in the country, including risk of disease outbreaks and rise in COVID-19 transmission.”
The WHO fears that the disruption of health supplies due to the closure of flights at Afghan airports and the displacement of people who are adding to the crowded health facilities is only going to make the situation worse.
As per WHO, of the 40 million Afghans, only 1,872,268 vaccine doses had been administered till 14 August.
In areas where people have fled to seek safety and shelter, including Kabul and other large cities, field reports indicated that there are increasing cases of diarrhoea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, COVID-19-like symptoms and reproductive health complications, said WHO.
For instance, the Taliban as stopped vaccinations in East Afghanistan’s Paktia district. They have put up warnings against vaccinations and dissuaded the health teams.
“If the vaccination process is stopped, COVID-19 will be difficult to control in Afghanistan,” says Musa Joya, a lecturer in medical physics at the Kabul University of Medical Sciences but currently pursuing a doctorate at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
“The people do not trust the medical system and avoid going to hospitals, and the country’s medical system is not able to provide oxygen and other medications which need to be imported,” Joya says.
“Besides, most Afghans do not believe in coronavirus mortality prevention by vaccination. They expose themselves to the virus and leave the rest to providence.
These two factors of no vaccination and no self-protection will surely result in disaster,” says Joya.
(Source: www.scidev.net)
]]>
, International, afghanistan,bomb,covid19,rule,taliban,time,,under,