Diaglobal GmbH

Solidarity to prevent war
Diaglobal brings the laboratory to the patient

After decades of war and oppression Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world.
With shortages of food, housing and employment, poor hygiene, lack of hospitals and medicines and the widespread destruction of infrastructure the Afghan people are dependent on foreign humanitarian aid.
Women and children in particular suffer from extreme poverty. Many women are widowed and are the sole support of their families with very little outside support.
The project initiated by Otto Hirsch, the Linz businessman, and Caritas Kaernten will open a clothing manufacturing business and various social services in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan to improve the prospects of Afghan women.
The women who will be employed in the project come from the poorest classes of Afghan society and most of them are war widows. If they fall sick they and their families have no hope of receiving medical care.
These women have no money to visit a physician, the few hospitals in the country are in Kabul, the capital city, and the hospital staff are frequently poorly trained or completely untrained.
The project management encountered health problems among the women working on the project, such as weakness, pain and fatigue. Dr Hiltrud Furtner and her team from Linz were appointed to investigate the women's symptoms. They went to Kunduz with urgently required medicines and medical equipment, including the Diaglobal GmbH mobile haemotology laboratory, which consists of the Duo photometer with carrier case and is essential for on-site measurements of blood values.
When she returned to Austria, Dr Furtner gave the following statement:

"The HB measurement with the Diaglobal GmbH photometer enabled us to diagnose and treat hypochromic anaemia or borderline HB levels in many women. The women are almost all undernourished, have undergone multiple pregnancies and births and have never had any gynaecological care.
The instrument yielded precise results which can be evaluated very quickly and was an extremely important addition for our diagnostic equipment with its ease of use. It is ideal for assignments of this type with its small size, low weight and shockproof packaging in the case (a small case!)"