Most casualties in recent Afghan earthquakes are women, children -WHO

The head of the World Health Organization’s emergency response in Afghanistan stated on Monday that two-thirds of the victims hospitalized with severe injuries from the recent earthquakes in the country were women and children. The Taliban administration reported that the quakes on Saturday resulted in at least 2,400 deaths and over 2,000 injuries, making them among the deadliest earthquakes this year.

In a video interview with Reuters, Dr Alaa AbouZeid of the WHO explained that the majority of those injured or killed were women and children who were inside their houses at the time of the earthquake. He further observed that two-thirds of the individuals with severe injuries admitted to the hospital were children and women. Dr AbouZeid emphasized the critical need for funding the humanitarian operations, as global attention and funding have been shifting away from Afghanistan due to competing or emerging crises in other parts of the world.

During his time in Herat after the quake, Dr AbouZeid expressed his devastation at seeing numerous children in critical condition in the hospital. He mentioned a specific case of a 3-4 months old child with head trauma caused by the earthquake. Head trauma can result in long-lasting disabilities, and the WHO is taking the matter seriously given its impact on both the victim and their families in the long run.

Although the response teams were able to save many lives, Dr AbouZeid stressed the need for better-equipped hospitals to handle further casualties and similar situations in the future. Since the Taliban took over, Afghanistan’s healthcare system, heavily reliant on foreign aid, has faced severe funding cuts as much international assistance was halted.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office has pledged $5 million in assistance for the earthquake response. However, immediate material support has only come from a limited number of countries. Dr AbouZeid expressed frustration that global attention had been diverted towards other crises in the Middle East, leaving little attention on the existing crisis in Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Bernadette Baum)