The healthcare environment in Eastern Europe can at best be described as challenging, and at worst as overwhelming for the people who live there. The current environment and the difficulties in transitioning from communism are described in a book entitled, The Dying Breed:  Healthcare in Eastern Europe, written by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. Some of the excerpts from this book are as follows:

"Transition has trimmed Russian life expectancy by well over a decade. In the republics of former Yugoslavia [which includes the countries of Serbia and Croatia where the Nazarean brethren live], respiratory and digestive tract diseases run amok. Stress and pollution conspire to reap a grim harvest throughout the wastelands of Eastern Europe. The rate of Tuberculosis in Romania exceeds that of sub-Saharan Africa.

As income deteriorated, plunging people into abject poverty, they found it increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Crumbling healthcare systems, ridden by corruption, ceased to provide even the appearance of rudimentary health services.... Doctors often extorted bribes from hapless patients in return for accelerated or better medical treatment. 

Country folk were forced to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest city to receive the most basic care....  Hospitals and other facilities are left to rot for lack of maintenance or shut down altogether....

Medicines and other substances - from cultures to vaccines - are no longer affordable and thus permanently in short supply. The rich monopolize the little that is left or travel abroad in search of cure. The poor languish and die."

Medical help from World Relief is generally provided in one of two ways:

1. Ongoing assistance for purchasing medicine for individuals in need.
2. Assisting with the cost of special medical needs for unusual situations.

Some recent cases of special medical needs where the European committee provided help include the following situations:

• Hospital, medical care and medication for a brother who was repairing his roof and fell from the roof onto his back on concrete resulting in a broken skull and a broken spine in three places. The brother has severe headaches, cannot speak and must stay in bed for three months.
• Surgery and six sessions of chemotherapy for a brother with cancer.
• Transplant and special procedures for a sister who had fractured her foot, but in the initial care, the broken bones were not properly set and she was no longer able to walk. In order to correct the problem, they needed to remove part of the foot and do a transplant.