17 March 2025, Kabul, Afghanistan – The World Well being Group (WHO) in Afghanistan is deeply involved that funding shortages may pressure the closure of 80% of WHO-supported important well being care providers. Hundreds of thousands, together with susceptible populations similar to ladies, kids, the aged, the displaced and returnees, can be left with out entry to crucial medical care.
As of 4 March 2025, 167 well being amenities had shut down as a result of funding shortages, slicing off lifesaving medical care to 1.6 million folks throughout 25 provinces.
With out pressing intervention, over 220 extra amenities may shut by June 2025, leaving an extra 1.8 million Afghans with out entry to major well being care. Within the worst affected areas – Northern, Western and Northeastern Afghanistan – greater than a 3rd of well being care centres have shut down, elevating alarms about an imminent humanitarian disaster.
“These closures are usually not simply numbers on a report, they signify moms unable to provide beginning safely, kids lacking lifesaving vaccinations, total communities left with out safety from lethal illness outbreaks,” stated WHO Consultant and Head of Mission in Afghanistan Dr Edwin Ceniza Salvador. “The results can be measured in lives misplaced.”
Eighty p.c of WHO-supported amenities in Afghanistan threat shutdown by June
Afghanistan is already battling a number of well being emergencies, together with outbreaks of measles, malaria, dengue, polio and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. With out functioning well being amenities, efforts to manage these illnesses are severely hindered. Over 16 000 suspected measles instances, together with 111 deaths, had been reported within the first 2 months of 2025. With immunization charges at critically low ranges (solely 51% for the primary dose of the measles vaccine and 37% for the second), kids are at heightened threat of preventable sickness and dying.
Disruptions to WHO-led coordination mechanisms stop well being companions from monitoring illness outbreaks, allocating assets and delivering important providers and threaten to push the nation’s already fragile well being care system deeper into disaster.
Whereas some donors proceed to assist Afghanistan’s well being sector, funding has been considerably diminished as growth help priorities have shifted. The wants, nevertheless, stay immense, and present assist just isn’t sufficient to maintain crucial well being care providers for tens of millions of Afghans.
“This isn’t nearly funding. It’s a humanitarian emergency that threatens to undo years of progress in strengthening Afghanistan’s well being system,” stated Dr Salvador. “Every single day that passes with out our collective assist brings extra struggling, extra preventable deaths and lasting harm to the nation’s well being care infrastructure.”
For extra info, please contact:
Ajyal Sultany
Head of Communications, WHO Afghanistan- Kabul
Mob.: +93 784812266
E-mail:
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