Number of malnourished children on rise: Doctors

KABUL (Agencies): Doctors in the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul said that the number of children affected by malnutrition has recently increased in this hospital.
According to the doctors, within the past two weeks, 45 malnourished children have been admitted to the hospital.
“The patients who are having health issues, we are hospitalizing them. The patients who are not having health issues but are just malnourished, we don’t hospitalize them. We give them necessary materials and send them to the clinics until they become well,” said Mohammad Sherzad, a doctor. According to official figures, 59 children in Hamal (March 22 2023 to April 22), 94 children in Saur (April 23 to May 23), 84 children in Jawza (May 24 to June), and 45 malnourished children in the current month have been hospitalized in Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital. The families of these children voiced concerns that they cannot feed their children properly due to poverty and unemployment. Ekram Ullah, who is suffering from malnutrition, has been hospitalized in Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital.
Ekramullah’s mother said that due to economic challenges and lack of food, her child is malnourished. “I don’t have money. How can I provide him/her with good food,” said Gul Sang, the mother of the child. “I don’t have money to take care of (him/her). They need good food and other care. I don’t have the capacity to provide (him/her) with something. Anything which is cheap, I buy it for them because poverty is rising,” said Shaziya, mother of a child.
Meanwhile, UNICEF tweeted that in the first 5 months of this year, they treated nearly 300,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
“In the first 5 months of this year, UNICEF supported treatment for 273,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, and around 60,000 in May alone,” UNICEF Afghanistan said on Twitter. The Ministry of Public Health declined to comment on the issue but earlier it said that nearly three million people in Afghanistan were suffering from malnutrition in 2022.