Search

This paper uses critical discourse analysis and critical literacy to analyze the first in a series of literacy primers developed with US support for children in Afghanistan in the 1980s, called 'Jihad literacy'. The text is analyzed for its ideological content as related to the themes of religion, violence, and martyrdom in the historical perspective of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The paper demonstrates how the notion of 'Jihad' was subverted to promote a holy war against the Soviet invasion. The educational system supported by the US created a radical version of Islam based on violence and martyrdom, shaping the Afghan society to this day. We contend that the same or similar institutions shape current discourses as in the past and that children are the main victims of politico-economic warfare.

This paper examines multidimensional poverty among children in Afghanistan using the Alkire-Foster method. Several previous studies have underlined the need to separate children from their adult nexus when studying poverty and treat them according to their own specificities. From the capability approach, child poverty is understood to be the lack of freedom to do and to be what children themselves value and have reason to value. The case of Afghanistan is particularly relevant as years of conflict aggravated by several severe droughts, political insecurity, bad governance and ongoing violence have significantly increased poverty in the country. The paper discusses the relevant dimensions when analysing child poverty and uses data from a survey carried out by Handicap International which contains information on dimensions of children's wellbeing that is typically missing in standard surveys. Ten dimension are considered in this paper: health, care and love, material deprivation, food security, social inclusion, education, freedom from economic and non-economic exploitation, shelter and environment, autonomy, and mobility. Our results show that younger children, those living in rural areas, girls and disabled children are the most deprived.

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) remains a major global public health problem. SAM cases are treated using ready‐to‐use therapeutic food (RUTF) at a dosage of ∼200 kcal/kg/day per the standard treatment protocol (STD). Emerging evidence on simplifications to the standard protocol, which among other adaptations, includes reducing the daily RUTF dosage, indicates that it is effective and safe for treating children with SAM. In response to a foreseen stock shortage of RUTF, the government of Afghanistan endorsed the temporary use of a modified treatment protocol in which the daily RUTF dosage was prescribed at 1000 kcal/day (irrespective of body weight) until the child achieved moderate acute malnutrition status (weight‐for‐height z‐score ≥ −3 or mid‐upper arm circumference [MUAC] ≥ 115 mm), at which point 500 kcal/day was prescribed until cured (modified treatment protocol [MTP]). In this paper, we report the results of this nonweight‐based daily RUTF dosage experience. Data of 2042 children with SAM, treated using either the STD protocol (n = 269) or the MTP protocol (n = 1773) from August 2019 to March 2021 in five provinces, were analyzed. The per‐protocol analyses confirmed noninferiority of MTP protocol when compared to STD protocol for recovery rate [93.3% vs. 90.2%; ∆ (95% confidence interval, CI) = 3.1 (−0.9; 7.2) %] and length‐of‐stay [82.6 vs. 75.6 days; ∆ (95% CI) = 6.9 (3.3; 10.5) days], considering the margin of noninferiority of −10% and +14 days, respectively. Weight gain velocity was smaller in the MTP protocol group than in the STD protocol group [3.7 (1.7) vs. 5.2 (2.9) g/kg/day; ∆ (95% CI) = −1.5 (−1.8, −1.2); p < 0.001]. The STD group had a significantly higher mean than the MTP group for absolute MUAC gain [∆ (95% CI) = 1.7 (1.0; 2.3) mm; p < 0.001] and the MUAC velocity [∆ (95% CI) = 0.29 (0.20; 0.37) mm/week; p < 0.001]. Our results confirm the noninferiority of a nonweight‐based daily dosage and support the endorsement of this modification as an alternative to the standard protocol in resource‐constrained contexts. Key messages: More evidence supporting the use of the nonweight‐based daily ready‐to‐use therapeutic food (RUTF) dosage for treating uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM), in specific contexts, is needed.Our real‐world prospective nonrandomized study showed that the fixed nonweight‐based daily RUTF dosage protocol is as effective as the standard weight‐based protocol for treating uncomplicated SAM in children <5 in the Afghanistan context.Our findings support the reflection of a nonweight‐based daily RUTF dosage in resource‐constrained contexts in national and global policies and guidelines to improve coverage of all children in need of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of the violence of the 21st century, many children fear that they or someone they know will lose a relative or friend through terrorism. Professionals in dance movement therapy, dance education, and physical education can help children to overcome their fears in order to feel safe and to build self-esteem. This article examines how several nations use dance education and therapy to help children manage the trauma of violence and loss. Unfortunately, dance programs alone cannot guarantee the end of conflict, but they can act as a catalyst for better understanding for future generations. Much can be learned from dance educators and movement therapists who have, by their own sense of humanity and extensive training, bravely explored the concept of healing for children traumatized by war. Dance movement therapists must fulfill the requirements of higher educational institutions and the standards of the American Dance Therapy Association in order to handle challenges that lie ahead. Well-trained dance and physical educators will continue to play a major role in providing an outlet for expression.

Iran has been among the top ten largest refugee‐host countries worldwide, sheltering one of the largest groups of forced migrants from Afghanistan during the past four decades. This policy paper briefly examines and summarizes the policies related to education of Afghan children in Iran through a structured review. The results of this review suggest that higher education has been and continues to be heavily restricted for Afghans. While access to primary education has improved for Afghans in Iran, policies continue to neglect both cultural specificity and unique needs of this group. Therefore, enrolment has remained restricted. The findings of our policy analysis call for further attention to culturally relevant education, financial assistance for families living in poverty and interventions to subsidize the cost of education to ensure access of all Afghan children to primary education and retain enrolment. Results also call for reconsiderations in restrictive higher education policies for Afghans in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contends both Afghan refugee children and adults perceive school as the primary resource for their successful transition into American society. Claims the school counselor is in a position to guide clients by providing them with necessary educational and career information. Describes aspects of Afghan culture relevant to counselors. (Author/ABL)

Background: The prevalence of pediatric mental illnesses has been increasing in recent years, with a great potential to impact on individual's functionality and adaptation in adulthood. Objective: This study aims to assess emotional and behavioral problems among schoolchildren in Herat City of Afghanistan. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on schoolchildren (grade 5-10), between September and November 2021. Sociodemographic data was collected using a paper-based 14-item structured questionnaire. Data on emotional and behavioral problems was collected using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) based on teachers' and children's report. Statistical analyses were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics (version 27). Results: A total of 418 students, including 190 (45.5%) males and 228 (54.5%) females with a mean age of 14.1 ± 1.7 (11 < 18) years were included in the study. The prevalence of students' self-reported total difficulties and prosocial problem were 5.7% and 1.2%, respectively. An insignificant difference was observed between mean total difficulties scores between students' self-reported and teachers' reported SDQ. Gender, grade, concern about shortage of food, and concern about losing house were significantly predicting students' self-reported total difficulties scores. Conclusion: This is the first study to report the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among schoolchildren in Herat City, Afghanistan. This, together with relevant global literature, highlight the need to address pediatric mental health, and provide services aimed at preventing, and treating children with these problems around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Against a backdrop of more than four decades of war, conflict and insecurity, Afghanistan is recognised as suffering from endemic violence and children are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including at the family and school levels. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of school-based peace education and a community-based intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence in conflict resolution, implemented in Afghanistan with the aim of reducing violence against and between children. Methods: The evaluation consisted of a cross-sectional, interrupted time series design with three data collection points over 12 months. Data was collected from students in 11 secondary schools (seven girls’ and four boys’ schools) in Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, with a total of 361 boys and 373 girls sampled at endline. All children were interviewed with a questionnaire developed for the study. Key outcomes included children’s experience of peer violence (both perpetration and victimization) at school, corporal punishment both at home and at school, and observation of family violence. Other outcomes included children’s gender equitable attitudes, attitudes towards child punishment, depression and school performance. Results: Between baseline and endline evaluation points, there were significant reductions in various forms of violence at the school level, including both boys’ and girls’ past month experience of peer violence victimization, peer violence perpetration, and corporal punishment by teachers. There were also significant reductions in boys’ and girls’ experience of corporal punishment at home and observation of family violence, with a particularly strong effect observed among girls. Both boys and girls had significantly more equitable gender attitudes and significantly less violence-supportive attitudes in relation to children’s punishment, and significantly fewer symptoms of depression. Girls’ school attendance was also significantly higher at endline. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first time that a peace education program has been evaluated in Afghanistan, with or without a community intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence for conflict resolution. The evaluation suggests that the intervention may have led to a reduction in various forms of violence, including children’s peer violence, corporal punishment of children both at school and at home, and in children’s reports of domestic violence against women at the household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Four decades of conflict has indelibly impacted the lives of Afghans, exposing many to different forms of trauma. The aim of this paper investigate a hypothesis that (mostly war related) trauma is a key driver of partner violence in Afghanistan. Methods: 1,463 women aged 18–48 were recruited into a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a women empowerment intervention in 8 villages of Kabul and Nangarhar provinces. The women were interviewed at baseline. The analysis uses multivariable logistic regression and structural equation modelling (SEM) to describe relationships between measures. Results: 57.4% of women reported exposure to one of four types of trauma: 23.3% an armed attack, 39.4% had felt close to death, 10.6% witnessed a friend or family member being killed and 21.4% witnessed the death of a stranger or someone unknown. Trauma exposure was associated with being older, Pashtan, madrassa educated, and food insecure. Women who were trauma exposed were more likely to have ever experienced IPV, have hit their children in the last 4 weeks, and be hit by a sibling or relative of their husband or their mother-in-law in the last year. They held less patriarchal personal gender attitudes and perceived the community to be more patriarchal. The SEM showed that all pathways between trauma exposure and IPV were ultimately mediated by either (mostly mental) ill-health or quarrelling, but not both of these. There were multiple paths through which trauma exposure impacted women’s past year experience of physical IPV. One was mediated by childhood trauma exposure and a latent variable for ill health. Other paths were mediated by women’s education and personal gender attitudes and ill-health, or else by quarrelling. Trauma exposure was related to lower educational levels. Another path was mediated by less patriarchal personal gender attitudes and ill health. Community gender attitudes was a mediating variable on a path which was also mediated by ill health and another mediated by quarrelling. It was also a mediator on a path which included personal gender attitudes and ill-health. Food insecurity mediated another path with ill health. It was also connected to childhood trauma, community gender attitudes and educational level. Conclusion: Trauma exposure due to conflict will persist until the conflict ends but the impact on women can be ameliorated. This analysis suggests interventions to reduce women’s exposure to IPV should focus on reducing poverty, changing social norms on gender, providing relationship skills to help reduce quarrelling and supporting women’s mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges that arise when working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK and discusses the conflict between government legislation and the values and ethics which inform social work practice. It highlights the distressing experiences young asylum seekers go through when faced with forced removal and how such traumatic events can affect their capacity to make informed decisions. The paper reflects upon the wider implications of how social workers (and other professionals) deliver the unique support unaccompanied young people require. It recommends working in partnership with young people and using an ecological approach to assessing their needs in order to positively inform future practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been increased attention directed towards military service members with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Combat PTSD has emerged in American society as the face of PTSD and as an "American Hero's Disease." Yet, far greater numbers of civilians in American society suffer from PTSD or will suffer from PTSD than military service members. Most civilian victims of PTSD are in fact women and children who have fallen below the public's radar screen and who have somehow been collectively forgotten. The present paper takes a close look at the high numbers of women and children in American society who suffer from PTSD and places these high numbers within a socio-historical and cultural context. It is concluded that combat PTSD is a special case of PTSD and cannot be regarded as the prototype for PTSD research and treatment. There are many faces to PTSD and combat PTSD is just one of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are associated with more deployments than in previous years. Recent estimates show 1.2 million school children have a parent that is serving in the active military. Family stress increases proportionately to the length of deployment and the perception of danger. In a recent study, twenty percent of children whose parent was being deployed were identified as 'high risk' for psychosocial disturbances. A deployed parent represents a stressor reflecting ambiguous loss which prompts emotional distress. Cognitive behaviorally based prevention and intervention efforts have shown considerable promise with children experiencing a variety of disorders who do not necessarily have a deployed parent. For instance the Penn Resiliency Program has enjoyed considerable empirical support. It seems quite reasonable that these favorable results would generalize to a population of military children. This paper will briefly review the extant literature on the effects of parental deployment on children's emotional well-being and then recommend a variety of cognitive behavioral interventions to enhance their psychological welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most severe form of TB. We prospectively documented the treatment outcomes and the risk factors for death in children with TBM from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Methods This prospective observational cohort study was conducted from February 2017 to January 2020 in hospitalised TBM children. All the patients were prospectively followed up for 12 mo. Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics, χ2 and multivariate logistic regression. Results A total of 818 TBM hospitalised patients with median age 4.8 (0.8–14.5) y were recruited. Females accounted for 60.9% (498/818). Upon admission 53.9% (n=441) and 15.2% (n=124) had TBM stages II and III, respectively, and 23.2% (n=190) had focal neurological signs. The case fatality rate was 20.2% (160/794) and 30.6% (243/794) survived with neurological sequelae. Independent risk factors for death were being unvaccinated for BCG (adjusted OR [AOR] 3.8, 95% CI 1.8 to 8.1), not receiving dexamethasone (AOR 2.5, 95% CI 1.5 to 4.2), being male (AOR 2.3, 95% CI 1.5 to 3.6), history of recent weight loss (AOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3 to 3.9) and having stage III TBM (AOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.3). Conclusions TBM continues to cause high morbidity and mortality in Afghan children. Strategies to reduce mortality should emphasise early diagnosis and treatment, routine use of dexamethasone and increased BCG vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we evaluate the impact of a literacy program for internally displaced female refugees in Afghanistan. The results of the evaluation show that the program was beneficial both for the women who received it and for their children, as participants were 50% points more likely to be able to read and write and 19% points more likely to work. The program also had positive effects on their children who were 2.6% points more likely to be enrolled in secondary school. Overall, the evaluation results suggest that adult literacy programs may mitigate intergenerational poverty traps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are still a major health problem, especially in resource-limited countries. The community-based prevalence of STH is unknown in Afghanistan. Main objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of STH among children in Daman district of Kandahar province in Afghanistan.Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study, with data collected during five months (June-October, 2020) from children living in five villages of Daman district in Kandahar, Afghanistan. All the stool samples were examined by saline wet mount method. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Chi square test, and multivariate logistic regression.Results: A total of 1426 children were studied, with majority (61.8%) of males and the mean age of 6.3 years. The overall prevalence of any intestinal parasitic infection was 39.8%. The overall prevalence of STH infection was 22.7%, with Ascaris lumbricoides (18.7%) as the most prevalent STH species, followed by hookworm (7.5%) and Trichuris trichiura (1.4%). Single, double, and triple STH infections were present in 14.9%, 7.2%, and 0.6% of the children, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that not washing hands after defecating/before eating (AOR 7.0, 95% CI 3.4-14.0), living in mud house (AOR 3.5, 95% CI 1.6-7.4), walking barefoot (AOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.6-3.1), living in overcrowded house (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.3), and practicing open defecation (AOR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1-2.0) as the risk factors associated with the predisposition of rural children for getting STH in Daman district of Afghanistan.Conclusions: Prevalence of STH is high among children of Daman district in Afghanistan. Most of the risk factors are related to poverty, decreased sanitation, and improper hygiene. Improvement of socioeconomic status, sanitation, and health education to promote public awareness about health and hygiene together with periodic mass deworming programs are better strategies for the control of STH infections in Afghanistan. Also, government and international donor agencies in Afghanistan should help in improving socio-economic status of the rural areas through provision of basic facilities such as piped water, electricity, good housing, and proper toilets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Teachers in community-based or home-based schools in Afghanistan play a critical role in extending access to education to children who are unable to access the government schools, especially girls. These teachers—men and women—are nominated by the community to teach, without necessarily having teaching experience or even completing their own education. Whilst they may feel under-confident about their teaching skills and need ongoing professional development and support, these teachers nonetheless have a strong sense of their roles in the community, especially with respect to guiding children in their faith and promoting children''s ‘tarbia’ (moral and ethical character) and well-being. This paper draws on qualitative data collected though the Healing Classrooms Initiative of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Using interview and questionnaire responses it presents home-based school teachers’ experiences and beliefs about education and the role of the teacher, and discusses how these constitute alternative qualifications in the context of early reconstruction in Afghanistan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Our study aimed to investigate the association between domestic physical violence in pregnancy and feto-infant outcomes among Afghan women. Our study design was a cross-sectional study that utilized secondary data from the 2015 Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 33 provinces of Afghanistan (n = 19 676). We used multiple logistic regression models to evaluate the relationship between domestic violence and early-pregnancy loss, perinatal, and neonatal mortality, with adjustments for confounders. Our results indicate that approximately 16.66% (n = 3278) of Afghan women experienced domestic violence while pregnant. In the adjusted models, we found that domestic physical violence in pregnancy was significantly associated with early-pregnancy loss (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.32-1.88), but not with perinatal mortality (AOR = 1.12, 95% CI = 0.96-1.32) and neonatal mortality (AOR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.95-1.28). The higher odds of adverse birth outcomes among victims of domestic violence underlines the necessity for interventions to address violence against women in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with disabilities are more likely to experience violence or injury at school and at home, but there is little evidence from Central Asia. Objective: To describe the prevalence of disability and associations with peer violence perpetration and victimization, depression, corporal punishment, school performance and school attendance, among middle school children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Method: This is a secondary analysis of data gathered in the course of evaluations of interventions to prevent peer violence conducted in Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of the 'What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Global Programme'. In Pakistan, the research was conducted in 40 schools, and disability was assessed at midline in 1516 interviews with Grade 7s. In Afghanistan, the data were from the baseline study conducted in 11 schools with 770 children. Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling was used to assess associations with disability. Results: In Afghanistan, the prevalence of disability was much higher for girls (22.1%) than boys (12.9%), while in Pakistan 6.0% of boys and girls reported a disability. Peer violence victimization was strongly associated with disability in Afghanistan and marginally associated in Pakistan. In Pakistan, perpetration of peer violence was associated with disability. In both countries, disability was significantly associated with higher depression scores. Food insecurity was strongly associated with disability in Afghanistan. Conclusion: Disability is highly prevalent in Afghanistan and Pakistan schools and this is associated with a greater risk of experiencing and perpetrating peer violence. It is important to ensure that all children can benefit from school-based prevention interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deployment to war is associated with disruptions to emotion regulation and parenting. Using data from a randomized controlled trial, we examined whether fathers with poorer emotion regulation would differentially benefit from the After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools program, a 14-session group-based parenting intervention. Prior analyses of the intervention demonstrated benefits to observed couple parenting and children's adjustment, but not to fathers' observed parenting. In this study we examined whether intervention effects on fathers' observed distress avoidance were moderated by baseline emotion regulation, and whether reduced distress avoidance was associated with improved observed parenting and reduced children's internalizing symptoms. A subset of the full randomized controlled trial sample (181 families with a father who had returned from deployment to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, a nondeployed mother, and a target child aged 4–13) completed measures at baseline, 12-months, and 24-months postbaseline. Results indicated that fathers high in baseline emotion regulation difficulties assigned to the intervention group showed reductions in observed distress avoidance at 12 months compared to controls, which were subsequently associated with improvements in observed parenting practices and reductions in children's internalizing symptoms at 24 months. The results suggest a role for personalizing parenting programs for fathers high in emotion dysregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Unprecedented numbers of migrants have arrived in Europe, including children and adolescents. Little is known about their unique health needs. Prospective data collection has been sparse. Mobile applications may help to facilitate global health surveillance. Methods A pre-validated survey instrument was converted into a mobile application covering self-reported exposures and disruptions of healthcare before/during migration, communicable and non-communicable diseases. Participation was voluntary, anonymous and confidential. Results Data were obtained from 405 migrant children and adolescents in Berlin, Germany, between 7 October 2015 and 15 March 2016 (median age 19 years, range: 1–24; 80.7% males) with the majority from Syria (62.5%), Afghanistan (9.1%) and Iraq (8.2%). In total, 55% were without family, 64% registered asylum-seekers with access to healthcare; 54% had seen a doctor since arrival, with colds or respiratory complaints (37.5 and 13.6%), followed by pain (26.7%) gastrointestinal (12.4%) and skin problems (11.1%). Underlying conditions were reported in 15.6%, predominantly asthma. Overall, 73% reported being up-to date on immunizations, but only 22% held a vaccination record with 46.4% having lost it during migration. Conclusions The lack of medical and immunization records among newly arrived migrants provides a challenge to healthcare systems. Mobile applications offer rapid screening tools in times of crisis, helping stakeholders with timely information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the current study was to gain insight into the ways in which parents who had arrived in Australia with refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds understand their young children's experiences of wellbeing and psychological distress during resettlement. Method: Eight parents (three male and five female) who had arrived in Australia from Iran and Afghanistan with children aged between five and eight were recruited using purposive sampling. In‐depth interviews were conducted regarding their perceptions of their children's experiences of wellbeing and psychological distress. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Four primary themes were developed: (a) Practical needs are a key priority, (b) the refugee experience impacts family structure and dynamics, which has a negative effect on children's wellbeing, (c) wellbeing as engagement in physical activity and education, and (d) bad dreams and difficulty sleeping are indicators of psychological distress. Conclusions: For parents recently arrived in Australia as refugees or asylum seekers, practical concerns impact perceptions of children's wellbeing or psychological distress, particularly for those on temporary visas. While this may lead parents to overlook symptoms of psychological distress in their children, protective factors conducive to wellbeing, including safety, housing, and education, are prioritised. Future research should explore when and why parents are likely to seek assistance for their children in the context of resettlement, as well as the impacts of visa types on children's experiences of positive wellbeing and psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A common means of vaccination coverage measurement is the administrative method, done by dividing the aggregated number of doses administered over a set period (numerator) by the target population (denominator). To assess the quality of national target populations, we defined nine potential denominator data inconsistencies or flags that would warrant further exploration and examination of data reported by Member States to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF between 2000 and 2016. Methods and findings: We used the denominator reported to calculate national coverage for BCG, a tuberculosis vaccine, and for the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing (DTP3) vaccines, usually live births (LB) and surviving infants (SI), respectively. Out of 2,565 possible reporting events (data points for countries using administrative coverage with the vaccine in the schedule and year) for BCG and 2,939 possible reporting events for DTP3, 194 and 274 reporting events were missing, respectively. Reported coverage exceeding 100% was seen in 11% of all reporting events for BCG and in 6% for DTP3. Of all year-to-year percent differences in reported denominators, 12% and 11% exceeded 10% for reported LB and SI, respectively. The implied infant mortality rate, based on the country’s reported LB and SI, would be negative in 9% of all reporting events i.e., the country reported more SI than LB for the same year. Overall, reported LB and SI tended to be lower than the UN Population Division 2017 estimates, which would lead to overestimation of coverage, but this difference seems to be decreasing over time. Other inconsistencies were identified using the nine proposed criteria. Conclusions: Applying a set of criteria to assess reported target populations used to estimate administrative vaccination coverage can flag potential quality issues related to the national denominators and may be useful to help monitor ongoing efforts to improve the quality of vaccination coverage estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the rates of under-nutrition, stunting and wasting in Afghanistan, which remain among the highest worldwide focusing on the need to address their immediate and underlying causes. Topics include the two national nutrition surveys in the country, the problems with equity and major disparities in nutritional status in Afghanistan, and the need for renewed commitments for reductions in stunting and increased coverage of evidence-based interventions.

Background: Designing effective public health campaigns in areas of armed conflict requires a nuanced understanding of how violence impacts the epidemiology of the disease in question. Methods: We examine the geographical relationship between violence (represented by the location of detonated Improvised Explosive Devices) and polio incidence by generating maps of IEDs and polio incidence during 2010, and by comparing the mean number of IED detonations in polio high-risk districts with non polio high-risk districts during 2004–2009. Results: We demonstrate a geographic relationship between IED violence and incident polio. Districts that have high-risk for polio have highly statistically significantly greater mean numbers of IEDs than non polio high-risk districts (p-values 0.0010–0.0404). Conclusions: The geographic relationship between armed conflict and polio incidence provides valuable insights as to how to plan a vaccination campaign in violent contexts, and allows us to anticipate incident polio in the regions of armed conflict. Such information permits vaccination planners to engage interested armed combatants to co-develop strategies to mitigate the effects of violence on polio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To document the socioeconomic situation of street children in Iran and to ascertain the part played by this in becoming a street child, we classified and evaluated studies on this issue from the recent decade according to their strengths and weaknesses. The results will be helpful in policy-making and planning for this group. The study employed a systematic review methodology, searching Iranian and international databases, and many universities and related organisations in Iran. After the quality of studies had been evaluated by three researchers, the findings of 40 research studies were classified, described and analysed. The research finds that street children in Iran come from crowded, low-income families; many of them were rural-urban migrants and Afghans with families who immigrated to Iran; most of their parents had a lower than high school education and many of their fathers were unemployed or had low-income jobs; the majority of these children were unskilled workers who would work many hours of the day for negligible incomes. We conclude that low socioeconomic status was prevalent among the street children's families in Iran and seems to be an important factor in the street-connectedness of the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2001 conflict in Afghanistan has attracted a great deal of international controversy. The impact of the conflict on Afghanistan's children has been no exception. The research conducted by the United Nations and child protection organisations on the experiences of Afghan children throughout the conflict paints a bleak picture. Accounts of children being directly targeted, accidently killed, abducted, actively fighting in armed groups, denied humanitarian assistance or simply struggling to be healthy, happy, educated and secure amid this conflict are a reminder that conflict devastates children's lives. However, while this research demonstrates that children are often war's innocent victims, the ways in which this research is narrated, particularly by belligerent parties to the conflict, are far from innocent. This article examines the political manipulation of research on Afghan children affected by armed conflict. It argues that Afghan children and their experiences have become a powerful moral symbol that is used by belligerents to advance political, military and strategic agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Children's Nurses: Italian Journal of Pediatric Nursing Science / Infermieri dei Bambini: Giornale Italiano di Scienze Infermieristiche Pediatriche is the property of Societa Italiana di Scienze Infermieristiche Pediatriche and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)