Iraq suffers medicine shortage

The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it had decided to reduce the shares of medicines provided to patients who receive their medical treatment in accordance with monthly cards, due to the sharp shortage in medicines resulting from obstructing the ratification of contracts Iraq signed in line with the oil-for-food agreement.

In a press statement he made on Monday, the Iraqi Health Ministry's secretary, Shawqi Murqus, said the recent phase has witnessed a drastic shortage in the medicines for diabetes, heart problems, stomach problems, cancers, hormones and blood-pressure diseases. He added that such shortages had obliged the Ministry of Health to minimize the shares of its patients who receive medicines according to monthly cards.

The Iraqi health authorities have distributed medicines since the enforcement of the embargo on Iraq in 1990, according to medicinal cards held by more than 600,000 persons of people who suffer chronic diseases and those who undergo medical checks every six months.

Earlier the Iraqi health minister stated that more than 7,000 Iraqis, including 6,400 children, died in March due to the lack of medicine resulting from the embargo imposed on Iraq since 1990 and that some 160,000 Iraqis died in 1998 because of this embargo.