Perverse statist incentives: Greeks self-inflict HIV to get €700 benefits

A recent WHO report shows grim health implications from Europe’s economic crisis, including a trend in Greece in which citizens infect themselves with HIV to access the meager range of government benefits available.

Perverse statist incentives: Greeks self-inflict HIV to get €700 benefits 35.si

Perverse statist incentives: Greeks self-inflict HIV to get €700 benefits 35.si

The WHO report ‘Review of Social Determinants and the Health Divide in the WHO European Region’ concludes that the staggering levels of unemployment and mandated financial austerity have hit European citizens hard, especially those in Greece, where the jobless level stood at 27 percent in September.

The economic crisis that began in 2008 has “exacerbated” health problems in parts of Europe, exposing “stark social and economic inequities within and between countries.” Greece is the hardest hit, with the country’s economy shrinking to the point of nearly knocking it out of the eurozone completely.

The report published last week says the HIV rates in Greece have risen “significantly” since 2008. It estimates about half of new HIV infections are self-inflicted “to enable people to receive benefits of 700 euro per month and faster admission on to drug-substitution programs.”

However, The Press Project has pointed out an inaccuracy in the WHO report, saying the organization was not correct while quoting a 2011 study published in the Lancet, which “described accounts of deliberate self-infection by a few individuals,” but did not give exact statistics - “about a half,” as stated in the recent report.

http://rt.com/news/greece-hiv-euro-benefits-298/

Perverse statist incentives: Greeks self-inflict HIV to get €700 benefits

Perverse statist incentives: Greeks self-inflict HIV to get €700 benefits

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