[{"bbox": [145, 151, 1083, 413], "category": "Text", "text": "Also as a result of the conflict, Afghanistan has one of the highest proportions of people with a disability in the world. About 80% of adults live with some form of disability (24.6% mild, 40.4% moderate and 13.9% severe forms) as do 17.3% of children, aged between 2 and 17.³ Severe disabilities are more prevalent among women and girls (14.9%), with Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations reporting that Afghan women and girls with disabilities face extreme barriers, entrenched discrimination, and sexual harassment in accessing assistance, education, employment and healthcare. Even though the overall security situation has improved, landmines, unexploded ordinance, local and domestic conflicts and accidents continue causing disability on a daily basis."}, {"bbox": [145, 423, 1083, 599], "category": "Text", "text": "The COVID-19 pandemic is slowing down in its 4th wave, but is still affecting routine health services, in addition to the suffering from the direct health effects of the virus. Indirect effects on health include increased malnutrition, reduced access to regular healthcare and social tension, and increased gender-based violence which particularly affect the most vulnerable, all of which also linkedloss of livelihoods. Afghanistan remains a priority country for COVAX to supply and deploy the COVID-19 vaccine."}, {"bbox": [145, 609, 1083, 871], "category": "Text", "text": "Afghanistan is one of the last two countries in the world where polio is still endemic and on the rise since 2018. Moreover, measles cases have skyrocketed over the past year. From January 2021 to June 2022, there were over 52,000 cases and 316 deaths, which is of particular concern because of the extremely high levels of malnutrition especially among children. Malnutrition (both acute and chronic) is a serious developmental and humanitarian challenge and one of the most serious health problems affecting infants, children and women in Afghanistan. Rates of acute malnutrition are high in 28 out of 34 provinces and a 21 percent increase in malnutrition is estimated from 2021; Afghanistan has one of the highest rates in the world of stunting in children under five (41%)."}, {"bbox": [145, 882, 1083, 1087], "category": "Text", "text": "Family planning (FP) is among the most effective and cost-efficient strategies to reduce maternal and infant mortality and thereby improve the health of families. However, modern contraceptive use in Afghanistan is substantially lower than other countries in the Central and South Asian regions, and has not measurably changed over the past decade. The percentage of married/in-union women of reproductive age practicing any contraceptive methods in developing countries increased from 51.8% to 62% between 1990 and 2015, but the practice in Afghanistan is limited to 1.9% for traditional methods and 19.9% for modern methods."}, {"bbox": [145, 1098, 1083, 1302], "category": "Text", "text": "Experts estimate that up to 5 million Afghans are drug users and that 1.4-2.1 million are addicted to opiates and/or methamphetamines. The plight of drug addicts has significantly worsened under the DFA. Many are forcibly locked-up in so-called ‘treatment centres’ that are deficient in terms of adequate medical and mental care, and lack adequate food, sanitary facilities, heating and meaningful rehabilitation and reintegration. Extreme poverty, lack of future prospects, post-traumatic stress due to conflict and social pressure are amongst the reasons for drug use."}, {"bbox": [145, 1312, 1083, 1426], "category": "Text", "text": "While the security situation has significantly improved in most Provinces since 15 August 2021, previously underserved areas have become accessible. This has raised opportunities and also expectations from the people and the DFA that health services are expanded into those areas."}, {"bbox": [145, 1449, 695, 1479], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Protection from Sexual and Gender Based Violence"}, {"bbox": [145, 1491, 1083, 1551], "category": "Text", "text": "Over the past twenty years, the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) in Afghanistan has seen significant improvement, in particular in the field of legal protection. This has been the"}, {"bbox": [145, 1588, 572, 1614], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ From a study by the Asia Foundation (May 2020)"}, {"bbox": [1069, 1641, 1083, 1663], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "7"}]