With the rise in temperatures in Kabul, cases of contagious and seasonal illnesses among children have increased.

Doctors at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital say that dozens of children with symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, and respiratory infections visit the center daily.

Aref Mohammad Hasanzai, head of the internal medicine department at the Children’s Hospital, said: “Infections increase more in this season. Children’s personal hygiene, the family’s environmental hygiene, the drinking water they use must be clean, and the food the child consumes—especially if it’s a baby and uses milk, mother’s milk is relatively safer.”

Marzia Mohammadi, a nurse at the hospital, said: “With the warming weather, diarrhea cases have increased. In the ER section, we admit children aged from two months to five years, and cases have risen from 20% to 80%.”

Doctors cite air pollution, lack of proper sewage systems, extreme heat, unhealthy diet, poverty, and lack of awareness among families as key reasons for the rise in seasonal diseases among children.

Several families have also expressed concern over the increase in these illnesses.

Fariba, the mother of a sick child, said: “My baby has diarrhea. I brought him for treatment. The doctors said I might have given him raw or sun-exposed water. Many times, doctors told me to give him fluids.”

Morsal, another mother, said: “My baby is six months old. He was sick. I took him to a private hospital, but he didn’t improve. I gave him medicine and everything, and now he is a bit better here.”

Officials at the statistics department of the Children’s Hospital say that in the past month alone, more than 1,100 children have been hospitalized for contagious and seasonal illnesses.

Habib-ur-Rahman Farazi, head of the hospital’s statistics department, says: “In the month of Jawza 1404, 488 diarrhea patients were admitted to the hospital, and unfortunately, four of them died. In pneumonia cases, 232 patients were admitted, of which four also sadly passed away.”

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had also reported that in May of this year alone, over 128,000 people in Afghanistan were infected with contagious diseases—a statistic that underscores the severity of the health crisis during the hot season.