Health in Afghanistan is in need of improvement due to the country being in a state of civil war for the last three decades. According to the Human Development Index, Afghanistan is the 15th least developed country in the world. The Ministry of Public Health deals with matters concerning the health of Afghanistan's population.
After Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001, when the United Nations began focusing on the situation in Afghanistan, improvement slowly began in the health care system of the country. According to USAID, infant mortality rate has decreased by 22% and child mortality has dropped by 26% since 2003. It was reported in 2006 that nearly 60% of the population lives within two hours walking distance of the nearest health facility, up from nine percent in 2002. The average life expectancy at birth is reported between 50 years to as high as 64 for both sexes.
Read more about Health In Afghanistan: History, Maternal and Child Health Care
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“The philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast- off griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy. We should impart our courage, and not our despair, our health and ease, and not our disease, and take care that this does not spread by contagion.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)