Ukraine healthcare in crisis

摘要

Conflict doesn't just harm people -it also damages systems that could make them better. Separatist unrest in Ukraine has left the country struggling with TB and at risk of outbreaks of polio and measles, the World Health Organization warns. The WHO says that between 30 and 70 per cent of health workers in eastern Ukraine are dead or have fled, and that at least $23 million is needed to provide improved healthcare for the region's 5 million inhabitants. Some 1.4 million people are particularly vulnerable, in part because they have pre-existing conditions or have had to leave their homes, it said in a note published on 16 January. People with HIV or AIDS in the Donbas region, which includes the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, face possible interruptions to their therapy. Patients themselves have to foot the bill for almost half of Ukraine's healthcare costs, says Kateryna Onishchenko, a health economist at Swansea University, UK, who is originally from Donetsk. "Due to the situation in the Donbas area, access to healthcare services has worsened, as some people are unable to pay for their medical services," she says, adding that destroyed supply chains are also hampering care.