Sanaa: Health ministry warns of lack of life-saving medicines

The ministry of health in the National Salvation Government in Sanaa on Friday  warned of an imminent health disaster,  that  could claim the lives of thousands of patients suffering from chronic diseases as a result of the lack of life-saving medicines.

Dr. Ibrahim al-Shami, director general of Medical Supply Stores at the Ministry of Health, said   since  Saudi-led  coalition closed Sanaa airport, medicines for chronic diseases , known to be refrigerated almost not available  because they require tight special transport and storage conditions.

He noted that the rate of the demand of medicines by the citizens  for chronic diseases are high and sharp in the stores of the pharmaceutical supply in the ministry in light of the great scarcity of these items , stressing the leadership of the ministry is trying hard to provide vital medicines to the needy with the continuing obstacles imposed by the coalition on the entry of medicines for Yemenis.

For his part, the head of the department issued by the ministry of health stores Dr. Abdul Nasser Al-Quraishi explained that medications requiring refrigerator save the lives of patients with chronic diseases such as the liver, diabetes, blood diseases, clots, immunity, dialysis, gynecology and childbirth”.

Al-Quraishi confirmed  that the ministry’s storage of the medicine for patients with multiple sclerosis is sufficient to treat only 6 patients and this drug is rarely found in the local market in various provinces of the Republic.

He added that many patients with multiple sclerosis do not know about the presence of their medicines in the ministry’s stores and if they knew, this drug would not have remained in these stores for one day because of the ministry does not have .

E.M