Public Radio East serves Eastern North Carolina by providing news, fine arts, and informational programming that challenges, stimulates, educates, and entertains an intellectually curious audience.

© 2026 Public Radio East

Public Radio East
800 College Court
New Bern, NC 28562

EIN 56-1802728
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Join our team! Public Radio East is hiring a Financial & Development Associate.
US

Afghanistan's medical system careens toward collapse

A woman enters the hospital in Mir Bacha Kot, Afghanistan, on Oct. 26, 2021. Health care workers continue to work without salaries, without medicine and with frequent power cuts as Afghanistan's economy crumbles. (Bram Janssen/AP)
A woman enters the hospital in Mir Bacha Kot, Afghanistan, on Oct. 26, 2021. Health care workers continue to work without salaries, without medicine and with frequent power cuts as Afghanistan's economy crumbles. (Bram Janssen/AP)

In Afghanistan, an escalating economic crisis has brought 23 million people close to starvation — more than half of the country’s population. That’s according to the United Nations, who along with other aid agencies is warning that the already dire situation could become a humanitarian disaster.

And it may become near impossible for those who need health care to receive it because Afghanistan’s economic collapse has pushed the medical system closer and closer to a breaking point.

Dave Michalski, Doctors Without Borders’ head of program, tells us more from Afghanistan.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

US