UNFPA, AFGHAN HEALTH MINISTRY RUSH MEDICAL TEAM TO SUPPORT SAFE MOTHERHOOD FOR EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS

UNFPA, AFGHAN HEALTH MINISTRY RUSH MEDICAL TEAM TO SUPPORT

SAFE MOTHERHOOD FOR EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS

NEW YORK, 3 April (UNFPA) -– A team of 13 doctors, nurses and support personnel from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is on the ground in Baghlan province providing relief to victims of the 25 March earthquake and assisting the regional hospital in Pul-i-Kumri.  The team is providing expertise in safe motherhood, helping displaced women deliver their babies safely and treating obstetric emergencies and pregnancy complications.

The team left Kabul on Thursday following an urgent request from Minister of Public Health, Dr. Suhaila Seddiqi, who is in Baghlan supervising relief efforts and performing surgery.  The UNFPA is providing vehicles and medical supplies as well as funding for the team.  An additional three female doctors were sent from Kabul to join the team this week.  The United Nations estimates the quake affected some 23,000 families.

The safe motherhood response began immediately after the quake with safe birthing kits being dispatched to the disaster area by UNFPA’s partners in Afghanistan, the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

For most people in Baghlan Province, the earthquake could not have come at a worse time.  The province has been seriously hit by the ongoing drought, causing widespread malnutrition.  According to United Nations, 80 per cent of the affected population was already relying on relief supplies for survival before the quake.

The UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral provider of population

assistance to developing countries.  A primary aim of its support to Afghanistan and Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries is to increase women's access to reproductive health care and reduce the alarmingly high rate of maternal mortality, 1,700 deaths per 100,000 births.

For more information, please contact:  William A. Ryan, tel:

+1-212-297-5279; fax: +1-212-557-6416; e-mail: ryanw@unfpa.org, or Jesper Jensen, tel: +1-212-297-5277; e-mail: jensen@unfpa.org.

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