page_title: Healthcare in Afghanistan
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Healthcare in Afghanistan / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Infant ward in a Kabul hospital in the 1960s. Original caption: "Most hospitals give extensive post-natal care to young mothers."
context_page_description: The decades of war destroyed Afghanistan's already-poor health care system. Most medical professionals left the country by 1992, and all medical training programs ceased. In 2003, there were 11 physicians and 18 nurses per 100,000 population, and the per capita health expenditure was $28 US dollars. The nation had one medical facility for every 27,000 people in 2004, and some centers were responsible for as many as 300,000 people. An estimated one-quarter of the population had no access to health care. The international organizations provided a large share of medical care. The drought of 1999–2002 exacerbated these conditions.
  Between 2014 and 2019 420 new health facilities were established including the first neurosurgery hospital.
context_section_description: It was reported in 2006 that an estimated 800,000 Afghans are disabled. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan reached the highest in the world, by some estimates as high as 275 per 1,000. In rural areas, one in six children die before reaching age five. This is because of poor sanitation and insufficient potable water supply, infectious and parasitic diseases such as malaria and diarrhea are very common. Malnutrition and poor nutrition also are pervasive.
caption: Infant ward at a Kabul hospital, 1960s
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