Press Release
16/6/2019
Slow Death in Gaza Strip and the Drug Crisis
Gaza patients are facing the worst medical crisis, and we are calling for reinforcing the basic lists of drugs.
Perhaps there is no time to describe the dark image of Gaza patients’ conditions who have lived the years of bitterness of the siege. A siege that destroyed the health system in the Gaza Strip, ‘where the patients became the weakest link in the condemned crimes committed by the brutal Israeli occupation. The hospital beds are hiding a realty of the drugs stokes, which have a deficit rate of 52% of the basic drugs lists, warning that all vital services received by these patients will cease . Therefore, ministry of health points to the following:
1.We hold the Israeli occupation accountable for the patients’ lives in Gaza and the deterioration of their health and humanitarian situations due to the continuation of the siege. Preventing the entry of medicines and medical delegations. Moreover, preventing 45% of patients from Gaza Strip to complete their treatment in specialized hospitals in the occupied territories.
2.Because of this chronic crisis, hundreds of the children are still deprived of their therapeutic milk, in addition to the suspension of the treatments protocols for cancer patients after the depletion of 62% of their specialized drugs counting 35 category for about 8,000 patients with cancer.
3.Patients and medical staff in dialysis departments are counting heavy minutes due to the lack of blood transfusion lines for children, which means depriving 40 children from receiving their sessions of hemodialysis, which take place two to three times a week.
4.Shortage in Erythropoietin to treat chronic renal anemia, this shortage will force 1150 patients of renal failure and renal transplantation for continuous blood transfusion.
5.Shortage of factor 8 and factor 9 for patients with hemophilia for 125 patients, 50% of them children. In addition to the shortage of the treatment of increased iron deposition in blood for Thalassemia patients.
6.The inability of the primary care centers to provide of 68% of treatment used for chronic cases as (diabetes and hypertension), in addition to the Shortage of vitamins and supplements for pregnant women. Shortage of mental and neurological drugs and epilepsy treatment.
Palestinian Ministry of Health appeal to you all, to your loved ones, for an urgent and effective action to enable us to overcome the pharmaceutical crisis that has gripped the core of basic health services.
Palestinian Ministry of Health- Gaza