Article Summary
According to a Greece based aid organization, the cut on Greece’s health service budget, characterized by health service cuts and 40% diminution in hospital funding according to Reveka Papadopoulos, has hurled HIV/AIDS and Malaria incidences. Notably, the cut was further marked by a plethora of job losses. As Jon Henley reports from Athens, increase in HIV/AID incidences among intravenous drug users in Central Athens has hit a record 1,250% with malaria increasingly becoming endemical in Southern Greece only ten months after the budgetary allocation for health provision in Greece was cut; an increase that according to MSF Greece comes as a result of cancellation of Greece’s “free needle exchange programs”. Reveka Papadopoulos further asserted that the cut coincided with lasts years increase in demand for hospital services. While giving a press conference, Horst Reichenbach, a German eurocrat heading EU's taskforce to Greece, was hopeful that the bailout and debt restructuring by Greece is a clear indicant of a good start- Greece recieved a €130 billion bailout package to meet its debt of which IMF gave €28 billion. Papadopoulos on his part commends the strong sense of solidarity among the Greece people as wells as the donations that MSF still receives from donors to aid in ameliorating the crisis. Papadopoulos further asserts that he sees self organization and social action taking root in Greece; something that is much-needed during such hard times.
It is tremendously saddening that malaria incidences are increasing in Greece under the watch eyes on the government. As Rodés asseverates, malaria is a treatable disease that can be managed with a superfluous of drugs that have always known to be relatively cheap (1032). It is justifiable that the cut might have been prompted the by large debts that Greece has, but on March 15, it was reported by Indiatv that the euro-region finance ministers had approved another bailout package of €130 billion for Greece but still nothing has been undertaken by the Grecian government in a bid to salvage the health service sector. On the same note, I acknowledge the fact that it is shameful for a country like Greece to experience widespread malaria incidences, however, it amounts to discrimination when one asserts that such phenomena are typic of the Sub-Saharan African region.
Works Cited
Henley, Jon. “Greece on the Breadline: HIV and Malaria make a Comeback.” The Guardian. 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2012.
“Greece Gets Second 130-Billion-Euro Financial Bailout.” Indiatv. 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2012.
Rodés, Joan (ed). The Textbook of Hepatology: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
