Since when “half-humans” need “human” health care?
The establishment wouldn’t often say that publicly, but that’s what their treatment of Maori, Asian and Pacific women amounts to!
The following article was published in Stuff New Zealand.
Asian women ‘disadvantaged’ in health
By REBECCA TODD – The Press
Asian women have the lowest breast and cervical cancer screening rates in the country but are largely ignored by the Ministry of Health, researchers say.
Partnership Health Canterbury ethnic liaison officer Wayne Reid said he was concerned about the low uptake of cancer screening among Asians.
Ministry statistics show that only 47 per cent of Asian women regularly have a cervical smear test.
Screening rates for Maori and Pacific women are 51 per cent and 54 per cent respectively, compared with 83 per cent for other New Zealanders.
Reid said a media campaign started in 2007 and directed at Maori and Pacific women had been effective in increasing coverage, but Asians were being left behind. Christchurch doctors needed information on cancer screening in Asian languages.
“Doctors say they have nothing they can give to [Asian-speaking patients]. There’s some stuff out there, but I don’t see it in the surgeries,” he said.
Asians were generally regarded as being “healthy”, but little was known about their health outcomes because data was poor
Asian people in New Zealand suffered the “healthy migrant effect”, where they would arrive healthy, but their health deteriorated because of stress and diet changes.
Reid said the ministry largely ignored Asian health needs, which were relegated to the “too-hard basket”.
Auckland University of Technology Centre for Asian and Migrant Health senior research fellow Ruth DeSouza wrote a research paper last year showing Asian women were the least likely of all ethnic groups to have mammograms or smear tests, generally going to a doctor only if something was already wrong.
A ministry spokeswoman said the cervical screening campaign focused on Maori and Pacific women because of their higher rates of cervical cancer, but it had been successful across the board in increasing screening rates.
In February last year, the campaign was extended to include Asian material targeting women in Auckland, where 70 per cent of New Zealand’s Asians lived, she said.
Breast cancer screening was targeted by need, and Asians had the lowest rates in the country, she said. (Copyright – the author or newspaper).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/2478054/Asian-women-disadvantaged-in-health
Never mind breast and cervical cancer screening, stop the cold-blood murder of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, parents and grandparents in the street, even at our homes!
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