04:26Syria: ‘We were not suffering like we are now’ - Children, patients struggle to find cancer treatment after 12 years of sanctions
Several children who are undergoing cancer rehabilitation discussed the ongoing difficulties they are facing to have access to needed drugs as sanctions imposed by Western countries continue to affect the deliveries of medicine and equipment to hospitals.
Footage recorded on Wednesday in Damascus shows doctors and hospital staff members taking care of different patients, while some of them discussed the ongoing difficulties they are facing.
“My daughter is a cancer patient. Currently, we are suffering greatly from a severe shortage of medicines due to sanctions and stringent laws over Syria. After Syria was at the forefront by maintaining free education and hospitals, its situation deteriorated due to US sanctions and others,” said Um Massa, mother of one of the patients.
According to one of the doctors, the US economic sanctions have affected multiple fields, including the availability of urgent medications, drugs for chronic diseases, biological therapies, and treatment for children’s tumours and cancers.
He also said that due to all these problems, patients have to be transported to another medical centre, but the lack of transportation results in delays throughout the process.
“Besides, we suffer in the children's hospital from the difficulty of securing spare parts for x-ray machines such as CT scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which are already in poor condition, and some of them are out of service. The economic sanctions prevented us from replacing the malfunctioning old equipment with new ones," he added.
According to The Lancet, the sanctions led to hampering the delivery of medicines and equipment, affecting the pharmaceutical industry as pharmaceutical companies are not being able to obtain raw materials, 'mainly because of financial sanctions that deter suppliers and increase costs exponentially.'
Syria has been facing US sanctions since 1979, when the US designated the country as a sponsor of terrorism, curbing much of Syria's financial institutions dealing internationally. The US further tightened the constraints amid the Iraq war in 2004, and repeatedly after the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.
04:26Several children who are undergoing cancer rehabilitation discussed the ongoing difficulties they are facing to have access to needed drugs as sanctions imposed by Western countries continue to affect the deliveries of medicine and equipment to hospitals.
Footage recorded on Wednesday in Damascus shows doctors and hospital staff members taking care of different patients, while some of them discussed the ongoing difficulties they are facing.
“My daughter is a cancer patient. Currently, we are suffering greatly from a severe shortage of medicines due to sanctions and stringent laws over Syria. After Syria was at the forefront by maintaining free education and hospitals, its situation deteriorated due to US sanctions and others,” said Um Massa, mother of one of the patients.
According to one of the doctors, the US economic sanctions have affected multiple fields, including the availability of urgent medications, drugs for chronic diseases, biological therapies, and treatment for children’s tumours and cancers.
He also said that due to all these problems, patients have to be transported to another medical centre, but the lack of transportation results in delays throughout the process.
“Besides, we suffer in the children's hospital from the difficulty of securing spare parts for x-ray machines such as CT scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which are already in poor condition, and some of them are out of service. The economic sanctions prevented us from replacing the malfunctioning old equipment with new ones," he added.
According to The Lancet, the sanctions led to hampering the delivery of medicines and equipment, affecting the pharmaceutical industry as pharmaceutical companies are not being able to obtain raw materials, 'mainly because of financial sanctions that deter suppliers and increase costs exponentially.'
Syria has been facing US sanctions since 1979, when the US designated the country as a sponsor of terrorism, curbing much of Syria's financial institutions dealing internationally. The US further tightened the constraints amid the Iraq war in 2004, and repeatedly after the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.