Conflict, poverty, poor health services and low levels of female education and rights combined to produce extremely high mortality rates for Afghans and their newborns, older infants, and very young children, more of the population need health assistance, Multiple disease outbreaks (measles, acute watery diarrhea, dengue, COVID-19) are ongoing yet. Main causes of maternal deaths in Afghanistan are hemorrhage, sepsis and complications of unsafe abortion. The high maternal mortality ratio in Afghanistan despite an increasing proportion of women giving birth in health facilities raises concerns regarding quality of maternity care at health facilities
Lack of basic health care and malnutrition contribute to the high death rates. Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Less than 15% of deliveries are attended by trained health workers, mostly traditional birth attendants
According to WHO, Afghanistan is one of only two countries in the world in which polio virus type 1 is still circulating and Afghanistan has the world’s third-highest malaria burden.
