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December 11, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Health Official Urges World Not to Abandon Afghanistan"
Agence France Presse (www.afp.com/english/home) (12/10/02); Pontarelli, Erika
Afghanistan's deputy minister of public health, Ferozudeen Feroz, urged the international community not to overlook the beleaguered nation's health care system when world attention shifts to Iraq. Vaccine-preventable diseases and common diarrheal and respiratory infections are responsible for over 50 percent of child deaths in Afghanistan, and some 25 percent of Afghan children die before age five. Tuberculosis (TB) is rampant as well, especially impacting women, who make up at least 60 percent of the TB deaths in the country. Improving Afghanistan's healthcare system is paramount to restoring peace and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, Feroz said.
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