Helping systems and citizens in the region rebound

Over the past decade, infectious disease and mortality rates in the Newly Independent States in Eastern Europe have risen, and life expectancies have decreased. These indicators of poor health reflect people and systems struggling to adapt after the political, social, and economic upheaval of independence.

Where the Soviet system reached virtually every citizen with free health care through workplace-based networks, now individuals must proactively access the care they need—behavior change that is made more difficult by stressful economic conditions and a breakdown of the health system. In many cases, the services patients would seek are not available: facilities, equipment, and supplies are lacking, and health care providers’ skills need updating.

Since the mid-1990s, PATH has been helping both systems and citizens in the region rebound. Read more »