By: Somaya Mandgar
Gulchman* did everything to save her five-year-old child. But a month ago, chickenpox took him away.
“Since Nawruz (March 2023) children have been infected with so many diseases,’ the 28-year-old said. “We don’t even know what some of the diseases are.”
Her home is in the Takht area of Bamyan’s Waras district. Residents say measles, chicken pox, and mumps have been rife here.
One local, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Rukhshana Media that 30 cases of measles and 60 chickenpox infections had been registered in the district since the beginning of the solar year.
Gulchman said large, watery pox appeared on her son’s skin. He died with severe fever and headaches; his little body wracked with pain.
“He couldn’t sleep from night to morning. He would cry out ‘Mummy, I have a headache, my legs hurt’. Or ‘I’m burning like I’m in a fire’.
When he first fell ill, she says she tried to take him to a health center. But she couldn’t reach it.
“The area does not have a road, the road to the clinic is too far, and there is no telephone antenna in the area so you can’t call.”
On the second day, she managed to bring her son by donkey. But doctors told her there was no medicine.
On the third day, Gulchman and her husband took their child to Waras central hospital. Again, staff said there was no medicine. Her son died in her arms.
Residents in Bamyan have been hit with a wave of infections in the past few months. Few have the means to treat them. Local sources said eight mothers have lost their children.
Siddiqa, who is 20, lives in Qulma Tob Takht village in Waras district. More than 15 children have died in the past year. She fears measles and other infections will continue to spread rapidly.
“There is only one health center and it takes an hour to reach on foot,” she said. “There is no medicine at all, especially for such diseases.”
According to Siddiqa, some villages are more than a day’s walk from the health center. “And there is no road to drive on.”
The mountainous Waras district is one of the most deprived districts of Bamyan. But in the past few years, authorities have paid no attention to it. The few roads remain narrow and hard to travel on.
Farzana* is a 31-year-old mother of three. She lives in the Chijin area. Since the beginning of the new year, all her children have struck by chicken pox and measles. “They coped well with measles because they were vaccinated. But the chicken pox hit them hard.”
Tamana Mohammadi*, 24, another resident of Takht, said all her children had suffered the recent spate of infections. “And it’s not just our children. Elders are getting infected as well.”
Tamana lives in a village with about 60 families live. She says a disease called whitepox has killed at least seven children in the village in the past few months. “I know only seven or eight children who have died but it may be more. Some houses are far away and it takes a long time to find out about victims.”
Four teenage girls, aged from 16 to 18, had also lost their lives to disease.
Tamana said the nearest health center to her village was about six hours away. “There is no road in our area, so we have to travel on foot.”
The district hospital is a ten-hour walk. “Many perish on the way,” she said.
Health experts confirmed the rise in infectious diseases in Bamyan since last year.
Dr. Aziz Wahidi, a 42-year-old specialist in children’s diseases, said chicken pox did not exist in the area recently. Now it’s spreading fast and there is preparation to deal with it.
He said more than half the children in Bamyan had been infected with chicken pox, measles, mumps or other diseases. Some have no cure but can prevented by vaccination. However, the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health had not provided vaccines.
“You can’t treat chicken pox, the only protection is vaccination,” he said. “Unfortunately, the vaccine for this disease is not available.”
A source from the AKHS said that while 30 cases of measles and 60 of smallpox had been registered in the district in the last three months, far more cases could have been detected if not for the isolation of many villages.
Rukhshana Media tried to contact the Director of Public Health of the Taliban in Bamyan for comment. The Health Ministry replied that nobody was authorized to speak on the issue.
Reports from international organizations claim Afghanistan’s health system under Taliban rule has returned to the level of 20 years ago.
The World Health Organization says an average of 167 babies die every day in Afghanistan and warns the health system under the Taliban is in danger of collapsing.
*Note: The interviewees have been given aliases to protect them from retribution.
