Photo: Unsplash/Farid Ershad
The World Health Organization has announced that more than 286,000 people have been affected by respiratory diseases in Afghanistan since the beginning of January 2024. Among them, 668 people were killed, the Afghanistan-based Khaama Press reported.
On February 24, WHO reported hundreds of deaths and infections from respiratory diseases in Afghanistan, coinciding with the onset of winter, the report said.
According to the World Health Organization, the increase in the number of people with respiratory problems is due to cold weather, which mainly affects children, the Khaama Press report said.
According to a WHO report, more than 63 percent of patients are children under the age of five, of whom almost 50 percent are women.
Previously, the World Health Organization stated that the average recorded statistics of respiratory diseases in Afghanistan have increased compared to the same period from 2020 to 2022.
With the arrival of the cold season and increased air pollution, concerns about the spread of respiratory diseases in Afghanistan have increased. Previously, thousands of people died due to acute respiratory diseases in Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.
Amid increased deportations of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries like Pakistan, more than half a million people are returning home and facing dire conditions such as a lack of food, shelter, water and employment.
Earlier this month, the World Bank said in a report that Afghanistan’s struggling economy has led to deflation and poverty, Khaama Press reported. This deflationary trend continued from April 2023 to December 2023.
According to the report, Afghanistan faces economic challenges due to reduced aggregate demand, including factors such as the stronger local currency, declining household savings, lower government spending and the ban on opium cultivation, which is causing farmers to lose income.
Afghanistan has witnessed a significant decline in headline inflation, with a negative 9.7 percent annual rate in December 2023. Food inflation fell to negative 14.5 percent and non-food inflation fell to negative 4.2 percent, due to weak demand. Core inflation, excluding food and energy prices, also fell to a negative 6.0 percent year on year.
This economic struggle has increased unemployment and pushed half the population into poverty, with 15 million people facing food insecurity. Coal exports fell 46 percent to $257 million in 2023.
In addition, food exports increased by 13 percent to $1.3 billion. Textile exports increased by 46 percent in 2023 to reach $281 million, with Pakistan and India remaining the top export destinations. Afghanistan’s imports increased by 23 percent in 2023 to $7.8 billion, of which food, minerals and textiles made up a large part.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: February 25, 2024 | 8:12 am IST