Camels can also walk in scorching heat for two weeks without a drop to drink. But their remarkable abilities could be lost forever. As pastoral societies disappear the camel may face extinction. Mechanical transport would increase, creating more problems in an already fragile ecology. And patients going to hospital are often asked to bring their own bandages and hypodermic needles.
Surgeons operate without gloves.
Some hospitals have been closed because they lack the basic cleaning materials. And doctors regularly have to decide which of several equally deserving patients should be given medicine and therefore life. Since then the country has depended on individuals and charities in the West for most of its medical supplies. Poland is not a healthy place for anyone - especially men. In industrial Silesia only three per cent of men live to claim retirement benefits at the age of 65.