Afghanistan Times
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Afghanistan is among the countries where diseases especially the childhood ones take victims. Though the number of the childhood diseases has been recently reduced due to the government efforts and with the financial helps of the international health bodies, but we are still the victims.
The recent report released by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) gives a worrying image of the children’s situation to us. Some 26 children under the age of five die due to diarrhea every day across the country, according to the report. The UNICEF counts the number of children who die from this lethal disease to 8,500 in a year.
The polio is fortunately going to be removed in Afghanistan as only a few cases have been registered in the past years in the eastern and southeastern areas have crossing points with Pakistan. The public health officials believe those children who were diagnosed affected by polio were either repatriates from Pakistan or had in touch with some polio-affected ones who had come from there.
Although the number of children dying from diarrhea has decreased from 10,000 in year, but diarrhea is still a lethal disease that deprives thousands of the blossoms who are the future builders of Afghanistan.
There different elements behind the outbreak of diarrhea in the country including lack of access to potable water especially in the rural areas. The majority of people drink water of the rivers, streams, qanats, ditches and other open water resources. They also use this water for cooking and making tea.
Lack of knowledge about the hygiene is another problem that helps diarrhea outbreak in both urban and rural areas. Most of people do not observe hygiene when they use bathrooms, for example: children do not wash their hands after coming out of toilets. This is the parents’ responsibilities to teach them how to use toilet and that they have to wash their hands with soap and other germicides after toilet.
Not only parents at home, but in school, teachers should teach children how to keep germs and microbes away. Media is another helper and the mullahs should tell people during the five-time prayers.
When children in other countries are healthy and go to schools and get ready for the future of their nations, why should Afghan children be still surrounded by diseases? We have moral and religious responsibility to save the children who are the builders of the future of our country.
