Paraguay - Health

Hospital and medical facilities are generally concentrated in Asunción and other towns. There were 3,730 doctors, 1,279 dentists, and 433 nurses in 1995. As of 1999, there were an estimated 1.1 physicians and 1.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people. As of 1999 total health care expenditure was estimated at 5.2% of GDP.

Average life expectancy in 2000 was 70 years; the infant mortality rate averaged 23 per 1,000 live births. As of 2002, the crude birth rate and overall mortality rate were estimated at, respectively, 30.5 and 4.7 per 1,000 people. Maternal mortality was 190 per 100,000 live births in 1998. More than half of the married women ages 15–44 used contraceptives in 2000. The principal causes of death are bacillary dysentery and other intestinal diseases, heart disease, pneumonia, and cancer. In 2000, 79% of the population had access to safe drinking water and 95% had adequate sanitation. Malaria cases remained below 1,000 from 1995 through 1998. The incidence of tuberculosis was 68 per 100,000 people in 1999. Immunization rates in 1997 for children up to one year old were: tuberculosis, 87%; diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 82%; polio, 82%; and measles, 60%. About 26% of children under five years old were considered malnourished in 2000.

As of 1999, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated at 3,000 and deaths from AIDS that year were estimated at 220. HIV prevalence was 0.1 per 100 adults.