The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, reported a “crucial need” for healthcare facilities in Afghanistan, based on “record-high” war casualties taken to Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar. The hospital registered close to 1,000 new patients with weapons-related injuries in August and September, as compared with just over 500 patients for the same months last year.
In response to the increasing number of armed groups throughout Afghanistan, the ICRC opened a seventh prosthetic/orthotic center in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, “to address the drastic increase in the number of weapons-related amputations in southern Afghanistan,” according to an ICRC report.
The new center employs 22 people-many with amputations-and can treat more than 1,500 people per year.
“Patients will no longer need to make the dangerous journey to one of the six other ICRC centers in the country,” said Alberto Cairo, who heads the ICRC’s limb-fitting and rehabilitation program in Afghanistan, in operation now for 20 years. He added, “Services are free of charge and amount to a lifeline for rural communities surrounded by increasingly violent conflict.”
In August and September, the seven ICRC centers in Afghanistan registered 151 persons with amputations, fitted nearly 1,970 prostheses and orthotic devices, and provided vocational training to 30 patients.
