Kabul Health Workers Battle Death House to House

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 24, 2002 (ENS) - Afghan Red Crescent volunteers are taking key health messages to the streets in an attempt to prevent more deaths and illness as an outbreak of intestinal ailments sweeps Kabul. Three people have died in the current outbreak.

Andy McElroy of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) reports that teams of trained Afghan Red Crescent volunteers are out among vulnerable communities in the capital offering simple advice to avoid illness.

Mohammed Zaher, an Afghan Red Crescent community first aid and youth officer, says prompt action could prevent the outbreak from becoming even more serious.

Afghan Red Crescent health worker in Kabul (Photo courtesy IFRC)

The street campaign is part of an extensive health education campaign mounted by the Ministry of Public Health, alerting Kabul residents of the need to ensure cleanliness and hygiene to prevent the spread of disease.

Female health education workers are going house to house in the Old Town of Kabul, and other districts where water and sanitation conditions are particularly poor. Schools and mosques will disseminate health messages. At the same time, Radio Afghanistan and local radios will carry a series of radio public service announcements and posters and banners will be displayed throughout the city.

Tips include urging people not to handle food with dirty hands or wash fruit and vegetables in contaminated water.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented epidemic prevention measures throughout the city, and public health officials are intensifying the chlorification of water sources in Kabul, which is just beginning to rebuild after years of war.

More than 6,000 patients have been admitted to hospital in the past three weeks, and three people have died from severe dehydration.

Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) distributes a tooth brush, toothpaste, comb, mirror, and towel to each of the children at Kabul's largest orphanage. For most, it is their first tooth brush. (Photo courtesy RAWA)

The National Institute of Health of Islamabad, Pakistan identified cholera in three patients who were admitted to two hospitals in Kabul in the past two weeks. There are fears more cholera could break out.

"Cholera is a water-borne disease that causes rapid dehydration and can spread extremely rapidly to large numbers of people, if control measures are not quickly implemented," WHO warned July 14.

Neighboring China is concerned that the illnesses, particularly cholera, might spread, according to the state news agency, Xinhua. The State Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine (SAQSQ) issued a circular Tuesday, citing the World Health Organization report that a diarrhea-type illness is spreading in Afghanistan.

Passengers from Afghanistan who are sick should tell the quarantine departments when entering China, SAQSQ advised, and Quarantine staff should "take necessary measures to treat infected patients, and those likely to be infected."

Quarantine checks on transported equipment, cargo, containers and parcels should be intensified, the agency recommended, and food, fruit, vegetables and beverages should be unloaded only after inspection.

This week a special task force was convened with participants from the IFRC, the Afghan Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.

Kabul mother and child listen to life-saving advice from health worker. (Photo courtesy IFRC)

"Volunteers have easy access to communities," said Zaher, "and we have more than 1,000 throughout Kabul province who are trained in disseminating simple, but important, health messages, just like the ones needed at the moment."

Illnesses related to diarrhea are common in Afghanistan at this season - this year there are fewer cases to date than in the past three years. Health officials are hoping the worst is not yet to come and making their prevention plans.

WHO says that a Cholera Task Force, composed of public health officials, and experts from UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations, is meeting regularly to review progress in control of diarrheal diseases, and to plan cholera prevention measures in all of Afghanistan's regions and provinces.

Diarrhea kills an estimated 85,000 children a year in Afghanistan and is considered to be one of this country's major health risks.

For more information read WHO's Cholera Facts for Travelers.