Health care

The main health problems are malnutrition, diarrhea, pneumonia, and poor hygiene. Ninety out of one thousand children in Tibetan communities die of preventable problems like diarrhea and vitamin deficiency. Many children have stunting which is short stature due to poor nutrition and vitamin deficiency. Between 1993 and 1996 a team of American, Tibetan, and Chinese health professionals conducted a baseline nutritional and epidemiological research on 2,500 children throughout Tibet. The results, published in International Child Health, confirmed that 52% of the Tibetan children suffer from severe stunting, 40% showed signs of protein malnutrition, and 67% had rickets (Vitamin D deficiency). Statistics from 16 counties across Tibet showed that 41% of deaths among infants and children were caused by pneumonia and 20% by diarrhea.

In 1998, according to Doctors Without Borders, 600,000 Tibetans were infected with parasites and 300,000 Tibetans had cataracts in central Tibet alone.Public transportation does not exist in many parts of Tibet. People often have to travel several days by foot or horse to find the nearest health care clinic. Many Tibetans die while on their journey to medical clinics.

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