{"id":14714,"date":"2022-05-25T10:03:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T10:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14714"},"modified":"2022-05-25T10:03:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T10:03:59","slug":"i-saw-an-oncologist-cry-tigray-cancer-patients-sent-home-to-die-for-lack-of-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14714","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I saw an oncologist cry\u2019: Tigray cancer patients sent home to die for lack of drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Doctors call for international help as Ethiopia civil war leaves terminally ill being treated with paracetamol in Mekelle hospital<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The Guardian<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors caring for cancer patients at the main hospital in Tigray say they have only two chemotherapy drugs left in date and are treating terminally ill people with expired medication and paracetamol. Eighteen months of war have left the sickest in society suffering agonising deaths, they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in 11 months, doctors at the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle took receipt of an oral chemotherapy drug earlier this month as part of an airlift by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Until then, they had had only one, Doxorubicin, still in date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, though there are some signs that the de-facto blockade<\/a> on the northern Ethiopian region could be easing, oncologists say they are still in dire straits and using expired drugs to try to eke out supplies. The Ayder as a whole has just 16% of the drugs it needs, a doctor told the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur pharmaceutical stock status is 16.3% at the moment \u2026 The situation is dire. We have finished almost everything,\u201d he wrote in a text message, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An oncologist, who also requested his name not be published, said that due to the scarcity of medication the hospital had stopped being able to offer any meaningful treatment to most cancer patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of [our patients] are returning back home,\u201d he said. He and his colleagues had become used to sending patients home in the knowledge that they would almost certainly die there, he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really hard. Almost all of them, when we tell them that, they will cry in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cWe cannot even give them [a] strong analgesic for pain and other palliative treatments. We don\u2019t have strong analgesics like morphine. What we have is mild and moderate analgesics like tramadol and paracetamol. So [the patients] are also suffering from pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war between forces loyal to Abiy Ahmed\u2019s government in Addis Ababa and the Tigrayan regional authorities appears to have edged tentatively into a new phase after a cessation of hostilities was agreed in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A trickle of emergency food aid and medical supplies has reached Tigray, which had been suffering under what the UN termed a de-facto blockade since last July. And\u00a0there are signs<\/a>\u00a0that this is becoming a steadier flow. The World Food Programme said that 163 trucks \u2013 the biggest delivery of the year \u2013 had\u00a0reached Mekelle last week<\/a>, and that due to the return of 100 trucks, which had been kept in Tigray since July, it would continue to scale up deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sacks of food earmarked for Tigray sit in a warehouse of the World Food Programme in Semera, Ethiopia, February 2022.\u00a0Photograph: AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is little comfort to the patients in need of chemotherapy who, with the right drugs, could perhaps be saved, but now face being sent home to die. One doctor, who had recently been on the cancer ward, said people were struggling to understand why they were still being refused treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe nurses are very frustrated because patients are repeatedly asking them, \u2018where are our cancer drugs?\u2019, because they hear drugs are coming [in]. It\u2019s heartbreaking for the nurses, and for the physicians working there. I saw one oncologist crying while giving an interview for the local media. They are in a dire situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, a group of oncologists at the Ayder wrote: \u201cThe existing situation of cancer care in Ayder Comprehensive Specialized hospital is so bad that it is almost nonexistent, and those who have no involvement in the war are paying a huge cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war has decimated the healthcare system in Tigray, home to more than 7 million people. But the parlous state of the Ayder\u2019s cancer care is particularly striking given that, five years ago, doctors at the hospital had drawn up an ambitious plan to bring its oncology services into the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comprehensive cancer care unit, housed in a new six-storey building, was to be built, and doctors were to receive specialist training in Ethiopia<\/a> and abroad. When war started in November 2020, it put a stop to the plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now doctors are urging cancer societies around the world \u2013 such as the\u00a0American Society of Clinical Oncology<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Association of Cancer Physicians<\/a>\u00a0in the UK \u2013 to help them. \u201cWe call to the medical community to be a voice for these voiceless patients,\u201d said the second doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A hospital in the Amhara region badly damaged during fighting in December.\u00a0Photograph: Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In their statement, the oncologists called on the federal health ministry to \u201cimmediately and rigorously support cancer care by sending essential medical supplies\u201d. They also implored the international community, cancer care advocates and the UN to \u201cjoin hands in averting this manmade catastrophe\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe beseech particularly the global oncology associations to raise their voices to help remove barriers of cancer care. The cancer patients of Tigray urgently require lifesaving medical supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Health Organization said it had not supplied chemotherapy drugs to Tigray as none of its partners were directly involved in cancer care, and cancer medicines were controlled substances that could not be procured by its partners. Cancer<\/a> medication would only come to Tigray via the Ethiopian health ministry, or under special grants, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICRC said that the delivery of Imatinib, a chemotherapy drug mainly used to treat people with a form of leukaemia, on 11 May, had been \u201cat the request and on behalf of the ministry of health\u201d. The airlift \u2013 the 55th ICRC flight to reach Tigray this year \u2013 also contained insulin, hemodialysis, oxytocin, tetanus vaccine, gloves and surgical equipment, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ethiopian government has always denied placing Tigray under a de-facto blockade, saying the failure of aid delivery has been due to fighting by Tigrayan rebels. It also accuses the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front of having\u00a0attacked and looted hospitals<\/a>\u00a0in the areas previously under their control in the Afar and Amhara regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Feature image: Empty hospital beds in the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle, Tigray, after patients were sent home when food supplies ran out earlier this year.\u00a0Photograph: Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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