Economic despair is killing people. As the recession crisis unfolded in Europe the consequences
of austerity measures on poor and middle class
individuals, versus maintenance of high caliber medical care for the wealthy came into
sharp relief. In Greece, for example, several
rounds of austerity measures imposed by the IMF and the EU led to massive
reductions in public health and medical services, starting in early 2009. By 2012 the Greek suicide rate and mental illness crisis had soared, pharmaceutical outages were reported all over the country, hospital hygiene and basic services had reached such low levels that
doctors advised patients not to seek
inpatient care, HIV incidence was climbing, malaria was widespread for the first time since World War II, dengue spread in various regions of the country for the first time in nearly a century, and tragedy plagued every aspect of health protection in the nation. When the state of Greek health was summarized for EU leaders in a May
2013 austerity meeting the Europeans reportedly left in “a state of
shock.”
--Laurie Garrett, The Survival of Global Health -- Part Three
# posted by Jay Taber @ 8:51 PM
