Medication and Treatment of Diseased Patients
The government of North Korea spends the least of their earnings on health care or less than $1 per person. Patients usually have to pay in cigarettes, alcohol or food for the most basic consults, and takes cash for tests or surgery; because of this most North Koreans resist going to the doctor. Instead they go directly to the market where they purchase medicine and painkillers, even though doing so is potentially dangerous, as North Korea is undergoing a tuberculosis epidemic, because of food problems North Korean's revert to eating grass, tree bark and roots. Most North Koreans are too poor to pay for treatment. North Korea's health care system is unable to provide sterilized needles, clean water, food, and medicine. Most hospitals operate without electricity or heat, and doctors are forced to work by candlelight. Hospitals no longer stock medicines because staff sell them on the black market.
Read more about this topic: Health In North Korea
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