Afghanistan’s
health system is on the brink of collapse as foreign aid stops funding the
country following the Taliban takeover, said Afghanistan’s public health
minister Dr Wahid Majrooh, the only minister continuing to serve the country
following the regime change.

The health
minister said that hundreds of clinics and hospitals in Afghanistan have closed
down and more are shutting every day as they run out of fuel, food and
medicine, The Telegraph UK reported. Many healthcare workers have gone unpaid
for months and a burgeoning health system is now close to collapsing on its
feet, said the minister. “You see a running, resilient system close to collapse
and it’s very, very painful,” Dr Majrooh said.

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The Taliban’s
capture of Afghanistan has plunged the country’s aid-dependent economy into a
crisis. As foreign funding is suspended because of the Taliban’s human rights
records, the country’s coffers have been left empty and its reserves frozen.

Further,
Afghanistan’s banking system has been left paralysed and many members of the
country’s skilled workforce have fled.

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Dr Wahid Majrooh
was the only minister of the civilian administration’s government who stayed at
his post in Kabul as the Taliban conquered Afghanistan on August 15. He said
that he turned down several opportunities to be evacuated because he wanted to
stay back in the country and steer the health system as Afghanistan transitions
into Taliban rule.

He said that he
has been pleading with foreign donors to not stop funding altogether as the
country moves further into crisis. The United Nations-run food agency has
warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of a food crisis with many people going
hungry or about to go hungry.

Moreover,
Afghanistan’s vaccination efforts against COVID-19 have also run into trouble
with the Taliban takeover. UN agencies have noted a sharp drop in vaccinations as
people are displaced amid peak political instability.