Strife Torn Afghanistan
Afghanistan is a country that suffers a lot due to child mortality issues. Despite of the numerous issues Afghanistan face, they were able to produce a report which was named "Opening doors to opportunity". There were lots of constraints and difficulties to achieve the "Millennium development Goal" for them, but it has to be mentioned that they have tried their level best to take all positives to bring down the child mortality rates.
The extent of problems and inadequacies Afghanistan has in their basic health care and medical plans are very well conveyed in the statistical reports. It suggests that majority of Afghan infants have iodine deficiency which resulted in a lower Intelligent quotient level of children. Deficiency of iodine will certainly reduce the IQ levels of children fro ten to fifteen percentages.
The mortality rates of children who are under five years of age are 162 per thousand and the mortality rate of infants is 257 per thousand children. The highly disappointing fact is that Afghanistan was not able bring down the child mortality rates between the years 1990 and 2002. It has to be remembered the same time that, this period (1990-2002), was the period when all the developing and under developed countries were thriving reasonably well in bringing down the child mortality rate. This simply conveys the depth of under development of a strife torn country and now, they are trying their level best to bring some sort of sanity in all aspects of their life. The detrimental effects of several attacks on Afghanistan put them far behind the rest of Asian countries and the same reason can be attributed to the child mortality rates of this country.
The communication and educational requirements have gained paramount importance in Afghanistan and they are on their path of recovery. Identification of grass root level problems and prioritization of key requirements in bringing down the child mortality rates have been done by the authorities and the latest reports reflect the improvements in the lowered level of infant deaths.
The "Basic package of Health services for Afghanistan" was a package developed by authorities which was very much instrumental addressing key issues related to child mortality. It addressed key aspects such as maternity health, child health, malnutrition issues, mental health etc. Numerous health workers have been employed on a compulsory service basis and this proved to be fruitful as the results were encouraging. The preliminary education was made mandatory by the authorities and this step was instrumental in infusing a sense of awareness among public about the need to stay hygienic.
As a matter of fact, sanitation facilities were improved by "Ministry of Health" of Afghanistan. The overcrowded areas were taken care by the government and local corporations were responsible for maintaining a clean environment.
Government policies to provide health care packages to new born babies ensured that children are fed well which have made them stay aloof from malnutrition issues. Apart from that, lower acute respiratory issues were also addressed by the "Ministry of Health".