Blog #9 :Winter Of Crisis Killing The Elderly In Portugal

To begin with, a recent article, “Winter Of Crisis Killing The Elderly In Portugal” describes the seasonal mortality rate in Portugal, and how most of the deaths were of low-income elderly people. As reported in the article, 11,600 people died in February, which was greater than then amount in previous years, and that most of those victims were indeed over the age of 75. Health officials believed that the outstanding number of deaths this year resulted from the economic crisis and the cuts in public spending. In addition, one-third of the country’s public hospitals were reported as insolvent, which caused the government to cut healthcare spending by an almost five percent this year.

            Meanwhile, the explanations for such high mortality rates varied, but most of them blamed unusually cold weather and seasonal diseases as the leading cause of death. However, many doctors felt that the reason the mortality rate increased was because of the growing inability of people to afford proper health care. For instance, as stated in the article, the elderly people were isolated from people of working age, which in return left them to barely meet basic survival needs and access to health services.

            Generally speaking, seasonal weather can cause many virus and infections, which makes elderly people more vulnerable to catching viruses, such as the Flu. Also, since many of the elderly population in Portugal are suffering from reduced incomes they were not able to heat their homes for winter. As a result, it led to more people getting sick and even death.

In conclusion, the DGS (General Directorate of Health) still claimed that it was just the weather causing all the health problems with the elderly people. Yet, since the healthcare spending cut, many elderly people became extremely poor and could not even meet basic survival needs. They suffered from illnesses and diseases and could not even get treatment at a hospital or even heat their home during the winter. Clearly, this is a social problem. The decision of cutting back on the healthcare spending created multiple hardships on elderly people in Portugal resulting in harm and even death. Furthermore, if they would have not cut back in the healthcare and helped the low income families, and elderly people, they might have had a chance for survival. 

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107125