Mongolia Table of Contents
Health-Care Systems
Mongolia's government has made great efforts to provide modern
medical care to the inhabitants. In the 1980s, medical care was free and
was provided through a hierarchy of clinics and hospitals. In rural
areas, the lowest level of the system was a medical station, staffed by
a physician's assistant, serving people within a thirty- to
forty-kilometer radius. Above this was a somon medical station,
staffed by a physician, serving a forty- to sixty-kilometer radius; an
inter-somon hospital, serving a seventy- to eighty-kilometer
radius; and an aymag general hospital covering a 150- to
200-kilometer radius. The higher the level in the system, the more
numerous the medical specialties and the more sophisticated the
diagnostic equipment available. The lowest levels concentrated on acute
care, public-health work, and screening and referring cases up the
hierarchy.
As of 1985, Mongolia had approximately 4,600 physicians, 24.8 per
10,000 people. There were also about 8,500 nurses and 3,800 physician's
assistants; many of the nurses and the physician's assistants
specialized as midwives, although some medical personnel were trained in
midwifery only. Medical care was provided by almost 1,200 clinics
staffed by physician's assistants, 290 clinics staffed by physicians,
and by 1986, 112 hospitals. The structure of medical specialties
reflected both the needs of the young and rapidly growing population and
the concentration of scarce resources on public health, control of
epidemic diseases, and the health of the working population. The most
common medical specialty was pediatrics, which accounted for 21 percent
of all physicians in 1985. The next most common were general
practitioners, 15 percent; obstetricians, 6 percent; public health
specialists, 6 percent; and physicians specializing in the prevention
and treatment of epidemic diseases, 6 percent. Government statistics
listed only twenty-seven (0.5 percent) oncologists and no cardiologists;
however, the existence of a large cancer research facility and the
practice of bypass surgery techniques suggest a greater interest in
these areas than the statistics indicate.
In spite of efforts to distribute medical facilities and specialists
evenly, there was a marked concentration of physicians and hospitals in
Ulaanbaatar and other major cities. In 1981 Ulaanbaatar had 49 percent
of Mongolia's physicians and an average of 42.9 physicians per 10,000
people. The cities of Darhan and Erdenet had 21.7 and 18.8 physicians,
respectively, per 10,000 people; low ratios of 9.5 physicians per 10,000
in Uvs Aymag and 10.2 per 10,000 in Hovsgol Aymag were also reported.
Mongolia cooperated closely with the Soviet Union in medical research
and training. Soviet specialists held seminars in Mongolia and helped to
build and to operate such special facilities as an oncology center and a
600-bed isolation hospital for infectious diseases in Ulaanbaatar.
Mongolia was an active member of Comecon's Commission on Cooperation in
Public Health, and it participated in World Health Organization (WHO)
projects on maternity and child health, environmental protection, and
training of medical technicians and mid-level health-care personnel.
By 1981 Mongolia claimed to have eliminated smallpox, typhus, plague,
poliomyelitis, and diphtheria, and to have reduced sharply the incidence
of other infectious diseases. In the past, disease was spread through
the use of contaminated drinking water and from such sources as lice,
which were common among the herders, who seldom bathed or washed their
clothing. Clean drinking water for the herders, who often shared water
sources with their animals, continued to be a problem, but much effort
was put into health education. The Mongolian Red Cross, an organization
that cooperated with the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League, focused
on preventive medicine and health education. It sent mobile teams to
factories and herding collectives to teach hygiene and sanitation and to
hold special workshops on infant care and the health needs of the
elderly. Although traditional Mongols were averse to bathing, their
modern descendants patronized a network of spas. Following the Soviet
and East European pattern, Mongolia established sanitoriums where
workers and such deserving individuals as holders of the Order of
Maternal Glory went to rest, to take the waters, and to follow a
medically prescribed regimen of swimming, sunbathing, and moderate
exercise. The Council of Mongolian Trade Unions operated a network of
sanitoriums that used the country's many hot springs and mountain lakes.
The network annually could accommodate 20 percent of the country's
factory and office workers during the brief summer season. So popular
were the spas that aymag authorities established their own
sanitoriums to provide therapeutic holidays for collective herders.
Precautions Against AIDS
At the end of 1988, Mongolia had reported no cases of acquired immune
deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In 1987 an AIDS research center was opened
at the Institute of Hygiene and Virology, and its specialists were
trained in laboratory analysis by WHO experts. About 16,000 people had
been checked for the disease by December 1988, but no carriers had been
found. All Mongolians who had been abroad for more than three months
were required to be tested. This was considered necessary because
Mongolia sends thousands of young people to study in other countries.
Analysis of donor blood and blood products had begun by mid-1988, and
special laboratories were being established in large hospitals. Foreign
students coming to Mongolia were required to be tested for AIDS, either
in Mongolia or abroad, and Mongolia accepted the results of tests
performed in the United States.
Source: U.S. Library of Congress
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