Afghanistan: MSF teams providing medical care to earthquake survivors

26 Jun 22

This article is more than one year old

Afghanistan: MSF teams providing medical care to earthquake survivors

In response to the earthquake, an MSF team has opened an 8-bed clinic in Bermal, Paktika Province, to stabilise injured patients before they can be referred and we have also started providing psychological first aid.

Teams have donated medical supplies and tents to health facilities in Gayan and Bemal.

Following the earthquake that struck Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan on the night of 21 to 22 June, MSF has sent teams made up of medical and logistical staff to the worst-affected areas.

Hundreds of people are thought to have been killed, over a thousand wounded, and many homes have been destroyed and damaged.

Donations of medical supplies and tents have been given to health facilities in Gayan and Bermal, and we are looking at solutions to ensure safe water and adequate sanitation to the population and the health facilities.

“In the early days after an earthquake, trauma injuries such as broken bones and wounds are the biggest concern but now health needs are turning to dehydration and diarrhoea caused by a lack of safe water,” says José Mas, the MSF emergency coordinator.

The situation in Afghanistan is evolving rapidly. Please follow @MSF_Afghanistan for updates.

At MSF's out-patient department in Batil refugee camp Gandhi Pant, a nurse, escorts a patient with a possible appendicitis to a waiting ambulance.

Batil is one of three camps in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State sheltering at least 113,000 refugees who have crossed the border from Blue Nile state to escape fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the SPLM-North armed group. Refugees arrive at the camp with harrowing stories of being bombed out of their homes, or having their villages burned. The camps into which they have poured are on a vast floodplain, leaving many tents flooded and refugees vulnerable to disease. Mortality rates in Batil camp are at emergency levels, malnutrition rates are more than five times above emergency thresholds, and diarrhea and malarial cases are rising.

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MSF in Afghanistan

Decades of conflict have ruined Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure, and many people rely on humanitarian aid.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) provides emergency, paediatric and maternal healthcare in Afghanistan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. .

In May 2021, there was a significant surge in violence, with fierce clashes between Afghan forces and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, also known as the Taliban) claiming thousands of lives and forcing many more people from their homes. By mid-August, the IEA entered the capital city of Kabul and Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Throughout this time, MSF teams have continued to provide life-saving medical care to people caught in the chaos.

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Afghanistan: MSF teams providing medical care to earthquake survivors