Lack of medicines put asthmatic children at risk

Iraqi children who suffer from asthma have suffered more than ever over the past three months. A shortage of medicines and a consequent increase in prices of available medications from private pharmacies have compounded their health problems, sometimes causing deaths, local doctors said.

“Never in Iraq have we experienced such a shortage in medicines for asthmatic patients as we have in the past few months. With the harsh winter, children are the most affected patients,” said Dr Mayssun Abdel-Rahman, a paediatrician at Baghdad’s Children Teaching Hospital.

According to Dr Mayssun, three children have died in her hospital since November as a result of complications caused by the lack of medicines for asthma.

“There was one child that I bought medicine for because his mother couldn’t afford it. Prices for medicines have shot up considerably and our pharmacies [in hospitals] have not received medicines for asthma for nearly three months,” she added.

Never in Iraq have we experienced such a shortage in medicines for asthmatic patients as we have in the past few months.

Dr Mayssun said that exacerbating the problem was a general increase in cases of asthma because of deteriorating environmental conditions in the country.

“The weather has changed drastically over the past years. There is an increase in the amount of dust in the air and a decrease in humidity, making children more vulnerable to respiratory diseases,” she said.

Persistent asthma patients have to take long-term control medications on a daily basis to control their condition. These medications primarily serve to control airway inflammation. Without them, patients can develop serious complications which can lead to death.

“Corticosteroids are the main treatment by tablets administration or by the use of inhalers. But there is a shortage of these too,” Dr Fareed Sattar, a paediatrician at Yarmouk Hospital, said.

“Our inhalers have not been used for nearly two months because they need repair and the oxygen balloon has to be used for patients in the intensive care rather than for asthmatic patients,” he added.

Asthmatic children dying

In Najaf, an asthmatic child died last week due to a lack of such medicines and in Basra at least two children have had the same fate over the past two months, according to Mayada Obeid, a spokeswoman for South Peace Organisation, an NGO based in Basra, some 550km south of the capital.

Officials at the Ministry of Health said they have not been informed about these cases but confirmed that there was a shortage of medicines. The ministry called on international organisations to help by sending medicines for such patients.

It's tough seeing mothers cry because they fear their children might die from a disease that can be controlled simply by the use of only one medicine.

“The lack in medicines is general for all Iraq but the World Health Organisation has been helping us by sending regular containers of different medicines to Iraqi hospitals countrywide,” May Ahmed, a spokeswoman in the Ministry of Health, said. “We are going to look into those cases [of asthmatic children dying] and help maintain health security in Iraq.”

However, Dr Mayssun said her hospital had alerted the health ministry twice in the past two months and had not received any response.

In the midst of the politics and insecurity, it is Iraq’s children who continue to suffer.

“I cannot stand seeing my children with this asthmatic crisis. It is very sad and I panic. The situation worsens when I come to the hospital and the doctors say that there is shortage in medicines and I don’t have money to buy [them from private pharmacies],” said Um Saleh Izidin, 31, a mother of a seven-year-old asthmatic patient.

“In the past, when we came here, a doctor would help him, give him medicine because they knew I could not afford it. But these days it’s tough seeing mothers cry because they fear their children might die from a disease that can be controlled simply by the use of only one medicine,” Um Saleh added.

as/ar/ed