Humanitarian, healthcare, and critical care crisis in Afghanistan: Mr Jaffer Shah and Ms Sara Nabil Artwork

Asia Ventilation Forum

The Asia Ventilation Forum (AVF) is a not-for-profit organisation comprising members from different Asian countries. We share our knowledge and experience in respiratory care and critical care with intensive care unit (ICU) workers across the continent with the aim of improving care and outcomes for the critically ill. There are two AVF Podcast series. "Behind-The-Scenes ICU Stories" invites colleagues to share anything and everything on their personal experiences. Expect heart-to-heart discussions on topics that may or may not have been widely described in the medical literature. "The Challenges of Airway Management During the Pandemic" invites colleagues to share anything and everything on how they deal with various clinical situations. Expect discussions on how experts personalise evidence-based medicine for the patient at the bedside. These Podcasts are hosted by Dr Jason Phua, respiratory physician and intensivist at Alexandra Hospital, National University Health System, Singapore, and Dr Jose Emmanuel Palo, intensivist at The Medical City, the Philippines.

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Asia Ventilation Forum

Humanitarian, healthcare, and critical care crisis in Afghanistan: Mr Jaffer Shah and Ms Sara Nabil

January 10, 2022 • AVF • Season 1 • Episode 11

In this AVF Podcast: Behind-The-Scenes ICU Stories episode, Mr Jaffer Shah and Ms Sara Nabil discuss the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Mr Shah graduated from Hofstra University in New York where he studied neuroscience. He has authored over 50 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and works with the Department of Health in New York to monitor the current COVID-19 pandemic and public health measures. He is a clinical researcher, statistics instructor, and medical journalist with an interest in global health, and together with his colleagues published an article on the respiratory health and critical care concerns in Afghanistan in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine on 23 December 2021. Ms Sara Nabil is an artist and women’s rights activist who is currently doing her Masters in Visual Arts in Germany.

Issues discussed in this interview:

The Taliban takeover and the cessation of foreign funding
Multiple overlapping disasters related to COVID-19 and starvation and beyond
Collapse of the healthcare and critical care system
Loss of women’s rights
Ground-up support through TelemedAF (www.telemedaf.com) and its telemedicine service
How the international community can help (please email info@telemedaf.com if you wish to help, e.g. by providing teleconsultations, training and education for healthcare workers, provision of medical supplies, designing of websites and apps and databases, donations, etc)

Work cited:

Shah J, Essar MY, Qaderi S, et al. Respiratory health and critical care concerns in Afghanistan. Lancet Respir Med 2021 Dec 23. Online ahead of print. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(21)00583-X/fulltext
Afghanistan’s health-care system is crumbling. The Economist 2021 Dec 19. https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/12/19/afghanistans-health-care-system-is-crumbling
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. UNHCR highlights urgent needs of forcibly displaced in Afghanistan as winter bites. Briefing Notes 2021 Dec 3. https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2021/12/61a9d0e34/unhcr-highlights-urgent-needs-forcibly-displaced-afghanistan-winter-bites.html
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Women’s rights in Afghanistan: Where are we now? Gender Alerts 2021 Dec. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/1