09672

01/28/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09672

AFGHAN MEDICAL AID

Thanks to the United States-led coalition in Afghanistan, the people of Mazar-e-Sharif have something they lacked for a long time -- a large, well-equipped, modern hospital. Established by Jordan, the hospital opened on January 8^th and has already treated several thousand Afghans.

"Medical supplies and equipment are far superior [here] to traditional Afghan hospitals," said Dr. Ziad Al-Shraideh [zee-ahd ash-SHRAY-dah], an anesthesiologist at the facility. In addition to more than a dozen surgeons, the staff includes experts in twenty medical specialties, including pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, dermatology, and radiology.

The Jordanian military is responsible for staffing, operations, and hospital security. The U.S. Army Medical Center is providing logistical support. The hospital at Mazar-e-Sharif was constructed in just ten days. It is one facet of a tremendous effort by the U.S. and its coalition partners to meet the desperate humanitarian needs of the Afghan people.

Since December 1^st, coalition forces and humanitarian aid organizations have moved well over one-hundred thousand metric tons of food and medical supplies into Afghanistan. The supplies are moving over eleven convoy routes and into nine airfields. But severe weather and the presence of millions of land mines pose serious obstacles to relief efforts. Some four-thousand-five-hundred Afghans trained by the United Nations are now at work removing these deadly mines.

Relief efforts cannot come too soon. Some six-million Afghans have little or no access to medical care. An estimated two-hundred fifty thousand children die each year from the effects of malnutrition. One in every four Afghans dies before the age of five, mostly of preventable diseases like measles and diarrhea. More than sixteen-thousand Afghan women die each year in childbirth or from pregnancy-related causes.

Coalition efforts to improve health care in Afghanistan are in marked contrast to the actions of the country's former rulers, the Taleban. Taleban forces stole food and medical supplies intended for the Afghan people. Taleban fanatics were narrowly prevented from blowing up the Taloqan Public Hospital in late November. Removing the Taleban was the most important step in protecting the health of the people of Afghanistan.