Rapid transmission
Some regions in Afghanistan are experiencing concerning increases in the number of people with severe COVID-19.
Inadequate access to healthcare
Hospitals and healthcare centres are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with the influx of COVID-19 patients and are unable to provide treatment to all who need it.
MSF-run healthcare facilities
We have reactivated our COVID-19 centre and triage unit in Herat to help reduce the pressure on the Ministry of Public Health’s Shaydayee facility. We are supporting the designated inpatient facilities for COVID-19 patients in the MSF DR-TB centre.
Supporting health authorities
MSF is supporting regional authorities by managing the COVID-19 triage unit at the Herat Regional Hospital, as well as supporting COVID-19 facilities in Malika Suraya and Boost hospitals.
Equipping healthcare staff
We continue to provide infection prevention and control training in the facilities where we work and have donated supplies of personal protective equipment as well. Following a sharp increase in cases, we have facilitated refresher training sessions for Kandahar’s Ministry of Health medical and support staff.
Testing and triage
MSF teams are supporting Ministry of Health medical staff to triage COVID-19 cases. In Khost we now have PCR testing onsite, and expect rapid antigen testing to soon be available.
Médecins Sans Frontières is providing support and medical care around the world to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re providing essential care through dedicated COVID-19 facilities, equipping frontline medical staff with PPE and training, and supporting health authorities through testing and community education.
With 50 years of experience fighting epidemics, we’re committed to protecting the most vulnerable and saving lives.
Despite deadly attacks on our staff and hospitals, Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare.
MSF focuses on emergency, paediatric, and maternal healthcare in Afghanistan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
In October 2015, our Kunduz trauma centre - the only facility of its kind in northeast Afghanistan - was destroyed in a US military airstrike. Forty-two people were killed, including 14 MSF staff, and thousands were left without access to medical care.
Following a year and a half of negotiations regarding the neutrality of medical care with all parties to the conflict we finally obtained commitments that our staff and patients would be respected, and care could be provided to everyone in need, regardless of their ethnicity, political beliefs or allegiances.
MSF operations restarted in July 2017 with the opening of an outpatient clinic for stable patients with minor burns, wounds from previous surgical interventions, minor trauma or chronic non-communicable diseases. MSF continues to run a small stabilisation clinic in Chardara district outside the city.
The capital Kabul has experienced a massive population growth, and the city’s public health services cannot fulfil the medical needs. People continue arrive in the city from other parts of the country, fleeing insecurity or searching for economic opportunities.
We support the Ministry of Public Health to deliver outpatient and inpatient care at Ahmad Shah Baba district hospital in east Kabul, with a focus on maternal health and emergency services.
The team also provides paediatric care, treatment for malnutrition, family planning, health promotion and vaccinations, and supports the hospital’s laboratory, X-ray services and tuberculosis (TB) treatment program.
In Helmand province, MSF has a team in the capital of Lashkar Gah. One of the areas most affected by active conflict and insecurity, and one of only three referral hospitals in southern Afghanistan, admissions often exceed capacity.
We collaborate with the Ministry of Public Health to provide around-the-clock care at the only facility for emergency, Dasht-e-Barchi hospital, running the labour and delivery rooms, an operating theatre for caesarean sections and other complicated deliveries, a recovery room, a 30-bed maternity unit and a 20-bed neonatal unit. The team is aiming to increase referrals for simple deliveries, in order to focus on complicated cases and maintain a high quality of care.
In Kandahar, MSF runs an innovative drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) program, which reduces the duration of treatment from the usual 20 months to only nine. The shorter treatment produces fewer side effects and improves the patients’ quality of life. The project has a laboratory and facilities to accommodate patients during their treatment in Kandahar. MSF also provides support to Mirwais regional hospital, and organises training for other facilities to improve detection of TB, including drug-sensitive cases.
