Liberia Health Mystery

I have said this so many times, the only way the Liberia government will take the health care seriously is if they are ban from leaving the country for medical reasons. If they have to use the same low class medical treatment as everybody else in Liberia, they will do something, but each time they get sick or need a check up, they fly out of the country and take the Liberian people money with them to get themselves fix.

In fact, let them stay home and use everything Liberia has, things will change, and quickly! You can’t change things you don’t know is broken or have never use, not so?

Thank you,

Roberta Williams
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My pleasure.

I agree fully.

Given our more than 165 years history as a "nation", we should be doing better in Liberia by now with these things, if we are to move our nation up and away from poverty, ignorance, manipulation, misinformation and preventable diseases. Nobody else will do it for us , without us paying "an arm and a leg" each time they do it for us.
Will continue to keep my fingers crossed for Liberia.

Zumo

FYI from around the globe: See how others are using smart economics: ie. local resources and local expertise to take care of their citizens afflicted by eg. hypertension, stroke, etc.


In Coma, Ariel Sharon Is Moved Home

Reuters
An ambulance brought the former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to his ranch in the Negev Desert on Friday.
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: November 12, 2010
JERUSALEM — Ariel Sharon, who had a major stroke while prime minister of Israel nearly five years ago and has since been in a coma in a hospital room, was moved on Friday to his ranch in the Negev Desert, hospital officials told Israel Radio.
A former close aide, Raanan Gissen, said in an interview that Mr. Sharon’s sons had been in discussion with Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv about the move. An elevator and other equipment had been installed at the family ranch to accommodate his arrival and long-term care.
Hospital officials said Mr. Sharon would at first spend several days at a time at home and then return to Sheba Medical Center to be to monitored. Only after several successful trials at the ranch would he stay there permanently.
Mr. Sharon, 82, breathes on his own but is fed intravenously, Mr. Gissen said. Visits to his sterile hospital room had been tightly limited because of a fear of infection. The cost of keeping Mr. Sharon in the hospital, which is borne by the taxpayer, has been high and some commentators urged that he be moved to a long-term care facility or home.
Mr. Gissen said that given his age and the duration of the coma, it seemed like Mr. Sharon was unlikely to regain consciousness, but his sons remained hopeful. He noted that Mr. Sharon used to say that he enjoyed spending time at the ranch, surrounded by livestock and nature, and perhaps returning there would help. Mr. Sharon was widowed twice. His sons, Omri and Gilad, are in charge of his care and estate.
A former general who held nearly every major ministerial post, Mr. Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001 and was at the height of his power when he had the stroke in January 2006. Having spent his career as a noted hawk and champion of the settler movement, he stunned the world by removing Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza in the summer of 2005 and leaving his political home in the right-leaning Likud, establishing the centrist party Kadima instead.
After his stroke, his deputy, Ehud Olmert, was elected prime minister.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

1) Demography
The Republic of Hungary has 10.04 million inhabitants of which 2.06 million live in Budapest, the capital of the country. Almost half of the country?s population resides in communities of less than 20,000 inhabitants each. In Hungary, there are 23 cities, 199 towns and 2913 villages.
During the 1950?s and 1960?s Hungary achieved improvements in the historically poor health status of its population through effective health measures and improved socio-economic conditions. While life expectancy in Western European countries improved during the 1980?s partly due to dropping rates of cardiovascular diseases, this tendency continued to worsen in Hungary as did deaths from cancer, liver cirrhosis and external causes such as accidents and suicide. Hungary has thus far completed an epidemiological transition. However, a special policy of health care for the ageing population is to be implemented. In Hungary, life expectancy at birth in 1997 was 75.1 years for women and 66.1 years for men compared to 80.8 years and 74.2 years in the European Union.
Mortality and morbidity due to unhealthy lifestyle, such as high consumption of alcohol, increasing rate of smoking and high fat and sugar diet are thought to be important causative factors. Factors contributing to the health status of population are complex, including social and economic factors as well as access to good quality health services.
2) Economy
It is difficult to estimate the total health care expenditure in Hungary, since it consists of contributions from local governments, voluntary sector and directly from the patients. In Hungary, the total health expenditure as a percentage of the GDP (6,5 %) is lower than the European Union?s average (8,5 %). The expenditure was growing steadily from PPP USD 391 in 1990 to PPP USD 602 in 1996 and it has continued to grow. The National Health Insurance Fund has a share of 70%, the largest part of the total health-care expenditure.
3) History
The first Act on mandatory sickness insurance for Hungary?s factory workers was introduced in 1889, 110 years ago, following the introduction of Germany?s sickness insurance system, affected by Chancellor Bismarck. Back then the centralised system of national sickness insurance was established for the 20th century. Before and after World War II, both the services provided by the insurance system and the group of insured persons had been extended.
In the 1970?s and 1980?s, the health insurance system was defined by Act II of 1975 on health, regulating both health and pension insurance schemes. In 1991, having returned to the practice of the first decade of this century, two self- governmental bodies became responsible for supervising and managing health and pension insurance funds, being the governing bodies of the separated Health Insurance Fund and Pension Insurance Fund.
In 1998, a package of acts has been enacted in order to restructure and redefine the social insurance system. Acts LXXX of 1997 and LXXXIII of 1997 define the scope of nationals entitled to social insurance services, private pension, the financing of the above benefits, and the benefits of mandatory health insurance. In 1999, the newly elected Parliament decided upon the supervision of the social insurance funds by a State Secretary.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

What is healthcare like in Germany?
Category: Health Care
Posted on: May 27, 2009 6:36 AM, by MarkH

What better argument for universal health care can you make than that of Germany? By far one of the most successful systems, it has had some form of universal health care for almost 130 years, and is currently one of the most successful health care systems in the world. It is again, a mixture of public and private funding, with employers providing most of the funding for health care by paying into one of several hundred "sickness funds" that provide health care funding to their employees. Germany is widely regarded as having excellent access, short wait times, care with the best technology and pharmaceuticals available, and this again while spending 10.7% of GDP (US 16%) with per capita spending of ~3.3k USD (approximately half of that in the US).
The German health care wikipedia entry is a good starting point, and it's always fun to try to translate German web pages and try to make sense of Google translations. But I've found several good articles describing the system including several articles in the MSM like this NYT piece which refers to Americans as having an "... immature, asocial mentality [that] is rare in the rest of the world," one for travelers, and one for those looking for German jobs. The consensus seems to be that Germany rocks when it comes to health care.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Leewaye

Dr. Zumo,
Thank you ever so much for the informative piece below, I hope our reading audience will learn some thing important from your wealth of knowledge in this area.

I have always wondered if the people who usually used the issues discussed below to score political points have ever asked about the health condition of Madam Sirleaf or her medical records? As you are aware, Madam Sirleaf is either 80 or close to that number and most of her medical checks are done in the USA at the expense of the Liberian people. I would have thought that her medical records would be public to those who paid her bills, the Liberian People.


Tony Leewaye



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "ZumoAmos


Two Pressure Candidates
In the wake of a recent admission coming from Johnson’s running mate that both of them are ‘pressure patients’, eye brows have been raised over the country’s future if the NUDP clinches the presidency during the election.
Senator Abel Massalley, also a senior senator of Grand Cape Mount County, in his apparent attempt to dismiss any notion of his colleague’s illness being a problem, told journalists recently, that he too carries similar sickness: “There is nothing wrong with being a pressure patient. I’m also a pressure patient”. -from Frontpage Africa.

In all sincerity, we wish Senator Prince Johnson well. We are sure he will take his meds to keep his pressure at the desired 120/80 and take his daily baby aspirin. We wish to sincerely thank Senator Masselley for being bold about his bout of hypertension as well. Acknowledging hypertension (the silent killer) is a very good and bold step for the two senators. Hope we can all educate ourselves and check our own blood pressure regularly. This is a good teaching momemt about the disease, which is responsible for so much other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality if left untreated.

Hope we don't get the false notion that they are the only ones affected. BIG MISTAKE. SORRY NO POLITICAL POINTS CAN BE OBTAINED HERE!!!!

High blood pressure (hypertension) is an important stroke risk factor: accounting for approximately 75% of all strokes.

FYI: In a recent article (" Stroke, the whip of death in the Young in Liberia", Journal of the Liberia Medical &Dental Association, pp. 15-17, vol.16, no.1) published by our dear, always brilliant colleague, Dr. Abraham Borbor at the Department of Medicine, JFK Medical Center, Monrovia Liberia, Dr. Borbor writes "The (retrospective) review of patients admitted over 33 months(August 2007- May 2010) in the JFK Medical Ward indicated that of the 2606 patients, stroke was significantly high (14.7%) and males were more affected (54.6%). Death due to stroke was high (57.06%) and the younger Liberian population (52.75% of total) is seriously affected. Hypertension was shown to be significantly associated (91.36% of total) with stroke at JFK in both males and females. Therefore, hypertension must be taken seriously by the medical community and society at large."

Hope the message is clear.

This is a chronic illness not a terminal illness so the two gentlemen should do fine with the rest of their campaign.

Instead of hiding their illnesses, at least they are honest with their illnesses- giving the public an opportunity to learn fully well about the disease (as is commonly done by the American and European public when their political leaders are affected by various illnesses), a rarity in Liberian politics and among Liberian politicians and public officials.

Zumo