One of the greatest blessings for human beings is good health. If people have good health, they have the capacity to build a better and healthy society. With the advancements in science and technology and particularly in medicine and medical facilities, human beings should have been able to control or completely eradicate many diseases. However, that has not been the case and serious issues still persist.
Mostly, it has nothing to do with the incapacity of human beings to deal with these diseases. There have been many major breakthroughs in the medical field and most of the diseases can be cured easily by the doctors, but the main issue is of sociological and political nature. Mostly, different governments in the world have not been able to form and economic and political system that should be dedicated to the service of the people. Therefore, there are many people who remain distant from modern health facilities. The health systems in many countries do not come under government’s domain and they function privately; therefore, most of them remain committed to profit-generation than to providing people cheap health facilities. In certain cases, mostly in the developed countries, certain health policies have been implemented that allow government interference in some way or the other to make the health facilities cheaper for the people. Nevertheless, a comprehensive health policy that can ensure that all the people in a country can get free or cheaper health facilities remains difficult to implement in the face of growing demands for profit and technological research in the field.
The result is that there are millions of people in the world who do not have access even to rudimentary services for minor diseases. It has also given rise to an inequality that is prevalent in so many ways. The wealthy people, who can afford, have the luxury to visit doctors and acquire health facilities even in other countries. The rich people of even the most backward country can have the luxury of treatment from the latest technology and invention in the field, while the poor, everywhere, remain alien to even basic requirements of life.
Afghanistan is one of the countries that are suffering from the dearth of better medical facilities for most of its people. The health facilities are not proper and most of the diseases that people suffer from stay untreated even in the large cities of the country. At the same time, the quality of services provided by government hospitals is really very low, their number is not sufficient and they are not established in most of the remote areas; therefore, most of the people do not have access to them. On the other hand private hospitals have been established that can, in no way, be afforded by the people who do not have enough food to eat.
Most of the people are compelled to go to other countries for treatment. They mostly go to the neighboring countries like India and Pakistan and, there again, they have to spend a large sum of money. Apart from the health services they avail, they have to pay for the travel expenses as well. If there are such facilities provided in the country, the people would never require to go out and would not take money out of the country as well. However, it is important to note that such facilities can only be acquired by the rich people. As the ruling class in our society can pay for those facilities they mostly do not care whether the poor people in the country can have better access to health facilities.
Such a scenario is really dreadful, and there should be serious efforts to deal with the situation. Short term projects will never solve the health issues in Afghanistan. Afghan government and the supporting nations must pursue long-term strategies to handle the issue, if they want to help the people of Afghanistan.
At the same time, corruption and lose control, regarding the quality of medicine that is sold in the country, is another major issue, which is responsible for further debilitating the health of the people instead of supporting them during their ill health.
There are many reports and studies, both national and international, that show that though millions of dollars have been poured into the health sector, there are many Afghans who have their nearest health center at a distance of several days and, unfortunately, most of pharmacies do not have professional staff.
Such a scenario is really dreadful and worth special attention; moreover, only lip service would do no good to change the scenario. Therefore, the authoritative people must take necessary measures and must curb the situation as the issue is very delicate and it is related to the lives of the people. Carelessness in this regard is a type of indirect murder.