The number of dangerously malnourished children has spiked 47% since January this year, Save the Children said in a recent report.
However, the Ministry of Public Health denied an increase in the number of children affected by malnutrition.
“The number of dangerously malnourished children admitted to Save the Children’s mobile health clinics in Afghanistan has increased by 47% since January this year, with some babies dying before managing to receive any treatment, the children’s charity said today,” the report reads.
TOLOnews’s reporter Waheeda Hassan reached out to Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital and interviewed several mothers whose children are suffering from malnutrition.
Hameeda said that her child has been malnourished for the past six months.
“My child has been sick since birth. It has been six months. My husband is jobless and we can’t treat him,” she said.
“The doctors said they should perform surgery and conduct an x-ray. We don’t have money to conduct the x-ray,” a mother of a malnourished child told TOLOnews.
The officials of the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital said that they are facing a shortage of medicine and a lack of standard laboratories.
“The aid organizations must provide medicine and funds for these patients,” said a doctor at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital.
A spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said they have increased health services for the malnourished children.
“The number of malnourished children has not increased. We have increased the health centers. The children who are coming to the capital are from the rural areas in the provinces,” said Sharafat Zaman Amerkhail, a spokesman for the health ministry.
Since the Islamic Emirate swept into power, Save the Children has scaled up its response to support the increasing number of children in need, the organization’s report said.
“Delivering health, nutrition, education, child protection, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene and food security and livelihoods support,” the report cited. “Save the Children has reached more than 3.3 million people, including 1.8 million children since September 2021.”
