GENEVA- World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative to Afghanistan Peter Graaff said Friday that Afghanistan is in a country in double jeopardy where health statistics are still very low, where every hour 2 women die while in child labor, and many children die because of malnutrition. Peter Graaff, addressing reporters in Geneva, said that some 6 million people of the estimated 29 million do not have access to regular health services. He added that this inability to access to health services is because of continued insecurity which will continue probably through the next year.
Peter Graaff said that there is quite a considerable number of increases in the cases of the pandemic influenza H1N1 where if a person ends in hospital he or she may not be able to have adequate medical care. WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told reporters today that Afghanistan will be among the first three countries that will receive the pandemic vaccine. Peter Graaff explained that Afghanistan will receive 2.8 million dozes that is 10 percent of the population requirements and that the first batch of vaccines will be some 500,000 which will cover groups at risk such as medical workers and pregnant women. He added that the overwhelming cases of the pandemic influenza are seen in Heart, Mazar Al Sharif and Kabul. Up to last Friday, he added, there were 942 cases of confirmed laboratory cases of H1N1 in Afghanistan.