Primary Health Care: Open Access

Extending Trauma Care to the War Victims in a Province of Afghanistan World Health Organization

Shrivastava SR*¹ and Shrivastava PS^{2 *}Correspondence: Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College & Research Institute, Chengalpet, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV)-Deemed to be University, India, Tel: +91-9884227224, Email:

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Dear Sir,

The quality of life of people trapped in conflicts has been impaired significantly and this is predominantly due to the lack of availability of welfare measures and health care related services. Similar sort of trends and massive destruction of property and health care establishments has been observed in Helmand and other provinces of Afghanistan. In-fact, the available estimates suggest that in excess of 4.5 million people in the nation are in immediate need of health services. Furthermore, an alarming rise in the number of civilian deaths has also been reported, with close to 11450 deaths in the year 2016, and 720 deaths within the first three months of 2017 been observed.

Moreover, thousands of people have been subjected to serious injuries and limb amputations due to the constant bombing / firing and attack by the conflicting parties. It is a cause of grave concern that most of the affected regions are deprived of health care facilities, and thus there is an indispensable need to ensure the provision of strong treatment and referral measures, right in the community settings. In addition, as the conflict is reaching areas inhabited by civilian people, the vulnerable population groups (women & children) have been exposed to life threatening sequels.

As there is no scope that the conflict is about to end in the near future, the provision of life-saving emergency health care services to the local population, is the key priority of the national government. In order to meet the specialized trauma care, the World Health Organization has assisted in the development of a surgical centre and first aid trauma centre. The functioning of these specialized centers is through the financial assistance from a European agency, which also looks after the supply of essential medical equipments & medicines, and even plays a defining role in training the health professionals on tackling mass casualty & delivery of first aid care.

Considering the enormous shortage of trained health staff, an exclusive attention has been given towards capacity building by training the local existing staff, and this is executed with the help of members of the emergency medical teams. In-fact, till date 342 community health workers have been trained in first aid, stabilization of patients, and provision of support during referral to higher centers. Further, from the outcome perspective, within a span of 10 months from June 2016, almost 6500 and 10000 patients have been treated at surgical centre and first aid centre respectively. Moreover, the plan is to expand the delivery of emergency services in those areas which do not have government supported health care facilities.

To conclude, acknowledging the extent of fear with which the local residents are living in the conflict affected parts, it is of utmost importance to sustain and strengthen the delivery of emergency health care services in the region, and thus to give them a hope of a better future in the coming days.