SPECIAL REPORT
Top 10 Products, India Imports from Paraguay
January - December 2018
Source: Atlassons Business Services Private Limited
Health Care
Gustavo Rojas, Researcher at CADEP, says, “Paraguayan
pharmaceutical companies already make extensive use of
Indian supplies. The direct presence of Indian pharmacists
could expand the population’s access to generic medicines,
also accessing MERCOSUR’s broad public procurement
market.”
The country is undergoing rapid demographic transition
and urbanization; the young population is between 17-29
years of age which is 29 percent of the total population, this
demographic structure combined with the low unemployment
rate promises a demographic dividend that can be exploited
for the next few decades.
Poverty reduction is progressing notably: absolute poverty
fell from 12 percent to 5 percent between 2010 and 2018, a pace
that puts the country on track to eradicate it by 2030. Around
a quarter of Paraguayans live below the national poverty
line. Much of the remaining poverty is now concentrated in
rural areas and aff ects the most vulnerable population, nearly
half the poor are children under 14 years, and indigenous
communities have much higher poverty incidence.
The economy also faces a large output and price volatility
that further exposes the poor and vulnerable to economic
risks. Not only has the burden of diseases shifted towards
Chronic and Non-Communicable Diseases, but maternal and
child health issues and infectious and vector-borne diseases
remain a concern.
With the demographic transition, Non-Communicable
Diseases such as Cardiovascular, Neoplasm (All type of
Cancer), Diabetes and Kidney Diseases, Mental Disorder
(Hypertension), are becoming increasingly common in
Paraguay. In 2000, Cardiovascular accounted for 10.19 percent
of total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and increased to
14.84 percent in 2018, as same Neoplasm (Cancer), in 2000,
accounted for 7.45 percent of total disability-adjusted life years
(DALYs) and increased to 12.54 percent in 2018.
A fundamental way of achieving sustainable Universal
Health Coverage is to invest more in health promotion
and disease prevention. Tackling strategic risk factors is a
challenging but worthwhile investment, as it is often more
cost-eff ective than waiting to treat poor health associated
with these behaviours. The country needs to expand health
service and insurance coverage, increase fi nancial protection
and ensure the delivery of a well-defi ned benefi t package.
In particular, the current coverage of the Family Healthcare
Units should be expanded to meet the health needs of the
entire population.
Adequate financial protection could be ensured by
providing universal coverage for costly conditions and
treatments and by improving the availability and aff ordability
of medicines.
Lastly, to advance towards Universal Health Coverage, the
country needs to defi ne a set of guaranteed services, Hospitals
and pathology facilities that can be provided eff ectively to
the population and deliver on that guarantee.
* Author is senior journalist, The Financial Express
PARAGUAY 2019 • 11