These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Another approaching storm on the desert. Egypt.
    Author: Werner D.
    Journal: Links; 1991; 8(3):7-10. PubMed ID: 12159260.
    Abstract:
    Examining Egypt's health care crisis, this article discusses the political factors that have led to such a state. Although Egypt possesses considerable resources and receives vast amounts of US foreign aid, the health status of its people is poor. Infant mortality rate stands at 67/1000 live births; the poor nutritional status of children has not improved over the past 10 years; 1/3 of all children are moderately to severely stunted in growth. The author attributes these woeful conditions to the country's political and economic policies. At one time or another, Egypt has allied itself with USSR or the US, and has generally retained only the worst features of socialism and the free market. While operating as a police state, Egypt has moved towards a free market that has led to the concentration of wealth. The author points out how medical care and medical school reflect the political and economic system. The government guarantees free health care for all and a job to all medical school graduates. But doctors now have to wait 7 years to obtain a post. Many have begun practicing private medicine, and many have become corrupt. The author also singles out the country's diarrhea control program as an indication of the impending health care disaster. Though hailed as high successful, the cost has been exceptionally high, and USAID funding will soon cease. Furthermore, mothers have not been taught self-reliance, but have been made to depend on commercially produced oral rehydration packets. Despite the severity of the social problems, Egypt's security forces have so far succeeded in suppressing popular opposition. But the author does detect hopeful signs in the many active progressive groups, and in particular, in the great social accomplishments of the governor of the providence of Ismailia.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]