Laos

Health Care

Under French colonial rule, there were little efforts made to provide health care outside the major cities of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champassac, and even there, medical services were heavily restricted to the European population and the elite. After independence there were initial attempts to improve health care, both in cities and in the country, by providing clinics and midwives. However, with fighting going on in much of the country in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the government restricted its efforts to cities and towns. The situation changed again with the emergence of communism in 1975. Communist rule regulated health services throughout the country, making it possible to establish clinics in towns and villages, with visiting midwives becoming available in remote settlements.

Since 1975, most Laotians use their government-run health care facilities, and hospitals now exists in 15 of the 16 provinces in the country. However, many people from minority ethnic groups tend to rely more on traditional treatments and cures than on maternal health services than ethnic Laotians. In recent years, mothers have faced health challenges, including the increasing prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) leading to the deaths of many mothers and children. There are 24 doctors and 108 nurses per 100,000 people in the country, compared to 37 doctors and 282 nurses per 100,000 people in neighboring Thailand. Abortion is illegal except to save the mother's life, and illegal abortion is punishable by two to five years of imprisonment.

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