The Honduran government has massively cut spending on public health. The country's main public hospital in Tegucigalpa, the capital, has received half of what it normally is allocated for medicines, has only 1,200 beds while needing 5,000, and is considerably understaffed, with one nurse per 30 patients. US$200 million is urgently needed to buy medicines as the hospital could run out of such pharmaceuticals within a month. Patients come to the hospital from other areas of the country experiencing even more severe shortages and if they cannot fill their prescriptions -which have already been cut in half- they will have no place else to turn. Gerardo Torres reports from Tegucigalpa. teleSUR
