Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has informed that two new health facilities funded by Iran will open soon in the country.
Speaking to journalists in a news conference, acting Minister of Public Health Qalandar Ebad said the two hospitals funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon open in the country’s Kabul and Bamyan provinces.
“The two new hospitals, both with high-tech equipment, will soon open,” Ebad said, asking for further domestic and foreign investment in the medical sector in the country.
“The country of Iran has reached an agreement with us in various sectors, among which, in this sector, it is connecting the health centers of Afghanistan with the online medical library, increasing the capacity in the pediatric heart surgery department and cancer control,” said Ebad.
According to Ebad, he discussed a number of issues with Iranian officials and reached agreements during a recent trip to Tehran. Among the issues were improving the capacity of Afghan health workers, modernizing blood banks, improving the capacity to handle organ transplants and facilitating medical visas.
Led by acting minister of public health Qalandar Ebad, a delegation of Afghanistan has recently met Iran and attended the G5 summit in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
Representatives of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and the World Health Organization (WHO) met on 6 and 7 September 2022 G5 High Level Expert Meeting on health cooperation in Tehran, the capital of Iran. The representatives of the respected countries reviewed the developments in health-related issues and explored the possibilities for further expanding cooperation among members to address challenges and meet common interests in the field of health.
At the two-day session, the participants stressed on the importance of exchanging experiences regarding the development of Primary Healthcare structure in rural and urban areas, preparing a roadmap for the development of primary healthcare structure, improvement of emergency response plans, joint training, introducing an affordable package of services delivery in public sector, capacity building of health staff in clinical, diagnostic and management levels and holding trainings for emergencies to introduce the available system of emergencies in neighboring countries.
Participants of the meeting agreed to establish a technical group to identify and finalize key communicable diseases areas, establish and strengthen integrated surveillance system for early detection and notification encouraging the use of digital tools, and timely share of communicable diseases surveillance data to ensure prevention and agile response to the outbreak and harmonize surveillance indicators, data collection measures among G5 member countries.
Samiullah Momand
