The majority of Argentina’s workforce gets healthcare through schemes run by their respective trade unions. A group of pharmaceutical businessmen, dubbed the ‘medicine mafia’ have been accused of creating fake medicine and then passing it off to union-run hospitals. Tens of thousands of patients suffering from cancer, hemophilia and Aids, among other severe illnesses, may have received the fake medicines. Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman reports from Buenos Aires on a corruption scandal that has shocked the country.
Many industries in Germany are suffering from the economic crisis — but medical technology isn’t one of them. After all,people still become ill — crisis or no crisis — and doctors and hospitals need modern medical equipment to treat them. Few Germans are willing to scrimp when it comes to health care.The market for health care in Germany grew around 5 percent in 2008,to some 18 billion euros,and continues to look robust for 2009. Ziehm is a mid-sized company which produces X-ray machines. A global leader in its field,Ziehm develops and produces its high-tech devices in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. Our reporter Dagmar Zindel follows the story and isn’t afraid to go where it hurts
