Afghanistan’s successful deployment of the NCD emergency kit shows the importance of integrating NCD services into primary health care to save lives

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are currently causing an estimated 109 000 deaths every year in Afghanistan. In order to address this burden, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners deployed the NCD emergency kit in four primary health care centers in different provinces with declared emergencies. The Kit supports treatment for chronic disease patients in emergency settings. It provides essential medicines and medical devices for the management of hypertension and cardiac conditions, diabetes and endocrine conditions, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health and neurological conditions for outpatient care in primary health care settings. This initiative showed that integration of NCD services into primary health care is feasible and acceptable, the NCD emergency kit can bridge gaps during emergencies, and partnerships are essential to success.

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