Health

Why Europe is running out of medicines, again 

Tuesday 28 March 2023 | Kostas Zafeiropoulos
Nikos Morfonios
Janine Louloudi
Corina Petridi
| MIIR

In the past 20 years drug shortages have surged in Europe. Governments have recently used the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis to cover up the real – far more structural – reasons behind them.

Parallel exports and the problem with Greek drug shortage statistics 

Tuesday 28 March 2023 | Kostas Zafeiropoulos
Nikos Morfonios
Janine Louloudi
Corina Petridi
| MIIR

In Greece, medicine shortages are severely under-reported by the responsible government body. Meanwhile, the illegal export of medicines is an important part of the problem.

Even where abortion is legal, access is not granted  in depth

Thursday 24 May 2018 | Paola Tamma
| Voxeurop

In several European countries tough abortion laws are not necessary, as the lack of available gynecologists makes it almost impossible for women to access abortion.

Are we ready for the next pandemic? 

Tuesday 28 March 2023 | Stefano Valentino
| Voxeurop

The European Union’s failure to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic was due to a lack of research funding, argue several prominent researchers. This has resulted in the spending of billions of euros to fight the virus and its consequences.

Greece: IVF for all, but not for LGBTI people 

Wednesday 22 March 2023 | Elvira Krithari
| MIIR

Greece's assisted-reproduction industry has been actively promoting its services domestically and internationally, and offers hope to thousands of infertile people – as long as they are not lesbian couples, gay men or intersex people.

Cancer in Croatia: a cruel system 

Thursday 09 March 2023 | Marina Kelava
| H-Alter

Mortality from cancer in Croatia is the second highest in the EU. The rate is 25% higher than the EU average, all while the country spends more than the average on cancer treatment.

Is it possible to have a European generation of non-smokers? 

Friday 30 September 2022 | Kata Moravecz
| EUrologus

The European Commission recently registered a European Citizens’ Initiative, that, among other measures, would prohibit any European citizen born after 2010 from buying cigarettes. The idea intends to phase out legal smoking, but according to statistics, it would cause significant issues in some member states, since young people apparently like to smoke.

Europe fights the monkeypox outbreak with unequal defences 

Tuesday 19 July 2022 | Ángela Bernardo
| Civio

Only two European Union member states confirm that they had strategic reserves of the most effective and safe vaccine against monkeypox, a smallpox-like virus.

A luxury called psychotherapy 

Tuesday 17 May 2022 | Marina Kelava
| H-Alter

Anxiety and depression were among the most common mental-health problems across the European Union even before the pandemic. But in every EU country that provides psychological help as part of its public healthcare, there are limits to this in practice. And some countries do not even offer such help.

prison building

France: The pandemic has exposed a dysfunctional prison system 

Monday 13 December 2021 | Margot Hemmerich
| Alternatives Economiques

While the poor state of French prisons led many to fear a serious health crisis in the wake of Covid-19, the worst of those fears have not materialised. However, the drastic lockdown measures have done nothing to benefit the mental health of detainees. Nor have they led to any serious reevaluation of the system itself.