KABUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan has established Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) to further improve the country's health sector, said a statement of Afghan Public Health Ministry released here Saturday.

    The system was established in mid December 2006 and so far has formed 126 reporting sites nationwide, it said.

    Nearly three decades of war, inadequate housing and poor environmental conditions are blamed for diseases in Afghanistan.

    Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), particularly pneumonia and influenza, meningococcal diseases, viral hepatitis, measles, typhoid, hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria are common among the poor people, according to the health ministry.

    DEWS stresses detecting outbreaks of diseases very early and responding to them on time and efficiently, it said.

    All sentinel sites report on weekly basis and the reports are transmitted to provincial level and then forwarded to capital Kabul for evaluation, said the statement.