KABUL, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Widespread disease like diarrhea is killing at least 26 children daily across Afghanistan, where the total number reaches 9,500 each year, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement on Thursday.
"Diarrhea-related deaths, which now total 9,500, account for around 12 percent of the 80,000 deaths of children under the age of five that occur annually in Afghanistan," the statement read.
"Using a toilet and washing your hands is literally a matter of life or death and deaths from diarrhea are particularly tragic because in most cases, they can be easily avoided," Adele Khodr, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, was quoted as saying in the statement.
According to the finding, the risks associated with diarrheal infections are exacerbated in Afghanistan, a country where some 1.2 million children are already malnourished and 41 percent of children are stunted.
