VZCZCXRO9123
OO RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1905/01 1200907
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 300907Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9863
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//JF/UNMA//
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC//J3//
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2473
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2664
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5892
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1313

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001905 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
RELEASABLE TO NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF 
 
STATE FOR SA/FO (AMB MQUINN), SA/A, S/CR, SA/PAB, 
S/CT, EUR/RPM 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND 
OSD FOR BREZINSKI 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SOCI AF
SUBJECT: PRT-GARDEZ  TAKING AN ACTIVE ROLE IN 
IMPROVING HEALTHCARE IN PAKTIA AND LOGAR PROVINCES 
 
KABUL 00001905  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
 
 
1.(U) SUMMARY: The PRT-Gardez medical team recently 
y 
concluded a successful training program for three 
groups of healthcare professionals in trauma 
management, suturing and childbirth techniques, using 
lifelike equipment provided by USAID.  PRT-Gardez has 
also used the skills of a female Army medic to advance 
womens health issues.  Healthcare is one of the few 
acceptable professions for women in the region. 
Therefore, incorporating continued training for female 
physicians, nurses and midwives has been a priority 
for the PRT medical team.  Also, providing treatment 
to women in the villages is one of the few ways for 
the PRT to come into contact with women and provide 
them with direct assistance.  With this in mind, PRT- 
Gardez and provincial officials are trying to help 
convert an abandoned ANA hospital into a hospital for 
women.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.(U) On April 20, the PRT-Gardez medical team 
completed medical training for the last of three 
groups to receive continuing education.  Using 
expensive mannequins (provided by USAID) that 
t 
displayed life-like functions, the team provided 
training for 27 physicians, three nurses and 18 
midwives in Paktia and Logar Provinces.  The training 
was supported by the health directors of both 
provinces. 
 
3.(U) The first of the three skill lanes, taught at 
the PRT to three physicians from Paktia Province, 
focused on casualty assessment and trauma.  The second 
course took place in Logar Province at the Pul-e Alam 
hospital, training 13 physicians, three nurses, and a 
dentist in the same three skill lanes.  The third took 
place in the Gardez hospital and included childbirth 
delivery techniques.  Upon completion of the training, 
the students received certificates from the PRT.  (The 
Logar provincial health director was surprised to find 
out that he was not exempt from participating in the 
training and passing his tests to receive his 
certificate.)  The students were visibly enthusiastic 
about this type of training and many will take these 
skills into the remote villages where they are 
assigned to small clinics. 
 
4.(U) FOCUSING ON THE WOMEN: PRT-Gardez has used 
the opportunity of having a female medic on staff to 
pay special attention to advancing womens health care 
in Paktia and Logar Provinces.  In the Gardez training 
program, 19 midwives and eight female physicians were 
trained.  Since arriving in May 2005, the PRT has 
provided medical attention to 827 women during 12 
remote medical humanitarian missions.  For many of the 
women, it was also a rare opportunity to leave the 
confines of their home.  In treating and interacting 
with the women in remote villages, it was apparent 
that they experience little positive human 
interaction. 
 
5.(U) PRT-Gardez has also been working with 
 
KABUL 00001905  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
provincial officials to convert an abandoned ANA 
hospital located in downtown Gardez into a womens 
hospital.  (The ANA have a brand new hospital located 
at the 203rd Corps headquarters.)  In this conservative 
Pashtun province, there is a stigma attached to 
 to 
traveling to see a doctor, especially for women. 
According to Dr. Nazdana, a gynecologist trained in 
Pakistan, the most pressing womens health care issues 
are education in prenatal care, and treatment of 
hepatitis B, anemia and tuberculosis (TB).  Often a 
difficult childbirth is the only reason a woman 
attempts to visit a hospital.  Unfortunately, by the 
time the birth is complicated and the family realizes 
the woman should be transported to the hospital, it is 
often too late. With poor roads and unsanitary 
conditions, many women die on their way to the 
hospital.  According to Dr. Nazdana, more women would 
be likely to come to the hospital before childbirth 
and for other health issues if they had their own 
facility.  Even with problems that affect both sexes, 
such as TB, women forego treatment because they to do 
not have their own quarantined facility. 
 
6.(U) COMMENT: Programs for continuing education 
for healthcare professionals have the potential to 
o 
instill a desire to return to the classroom in a 
profession much neglected and maligned due to war and 
economic destruction.  As donors and NGOs design 
health care programs, special consideration should be 
given to cultural fears of being seen seeking medical 
attention, especially for women, and that women will, 
for the foreseeable future, require separate 
facilities and special encouragement through community 
education to seek medical attention.  Currently, 
Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal death 
rates in the world.  While PRT-Gardez will continue to 
press for the conversion of the ANA facility into a 
womens hospital, it has learned that it will require 
intervention in Kabul to persuade the Ministry of 
Defense to transfer ownership of the building to the 
Ministry of Health.  END COMMENT. 
 
NEUMANN 
 
N