BEIRUT: Dozens of cancer patients in Lebanon staged a demonstration on Saturday in Riad Al-Solh Square near the headquarters of the prime minister to highlight the unavailability of drugs in pharmacies and hospitals.
Protesters held banners saying, “We will tell God everything” and “Medicine will be available when you stop your corruption.”
The patients’ protest on Saturday coincided with World Cancer Day.
Joe Salloum, president of the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists, condemned, along with the Barbara Nassar Association for Cancer Patient Support, “the genocide committed against the patients by depriving them of cancer medication.”
Salloum is one of the organizers of the protest taking place in Beirut.
Joyce, a protester in her 40s, said: “Medicine is unavailable. I cannot buy it myself because I cannot cover its costs, but I get it from an association that supports cancer patients in Lebanon.”
Joyce, who suffers from breast cancer and needs an eight-year-long treatment, added: “If the government decides to lift subsidies on cancer medication as it has been reported lately, what am I going to do? The ruling class is no longer subsidizing anything, but it can at least keep the subsidies on the medication so we can stay alive.”
Karim Gebara, head of the Lebanese Pharmaceutical Importers, believes there is a drug shortage because the funds available for their purchase are not enough to cover the needs of all Lebanese patients.
Gebara said that importers no longer play a key role when it comes to the amount of imported drugs. Instead, it is the Health Ministry that decides the quantity and type of drugs and who will receive them, Gebara added.
Patients and activists supporting them wore black during their protest on Saturday, mourning cancer victims who died last year because they could not receive their treatment on time.
They charged that the state is “trying to kill and exterminate them.”
Last year, cancer patients carried and smashed a wooden coffin symbolizing their death caused by the lack of medicine and inability to receive treatment.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said that cancer patients have a right to be worried, but the ministry has not lifted subsidies on medications for cancer and incurable diseases.
“What happened is that we substituted eight expensive medications with generic ones from international companies,” he said.
“Moreover, the price of one branded medication pack equals the price of two generic medication packs, meaning that for the price of one branded medication pack, I can give two patients two generic medication packs. This does not mean that subsidies were lifted as interpreted by some people.”
Abiad stressed that one of the ministry’s priorities is to secure medication and treatment for patients suffering from cancer and incurable diseases, adding that their numbers range between 20,000 and 30,000.
He said the computerized system the ministry has set up to track subsidized medications, such as those for cancer and incurable diseases, has the aim of providing fair treatment.
It has, to date, detected many loopholes, including how some people would acquire expensive cancer medications under the names of deceased patients or in a quantity that exceeds their needs, said Abiad.
Now, the minister said 90 percent of the subsidized medications are going to the right place and the ministry is in the process of adding more medications to the tracking system.
The Ministry of Health has previously warned against smuggling subsidized cancer drugs outside Lebanon and using counterfeit or expired drugs smuggled inside Lebanon. Several hospitals have documented dozens of samples that, upon inspection, were found to be mixed with water and salt.
According to patients, subsidized medications do not arrive on time, which messes up the schedule of treatment sessions, leading to the deterioration of patients’ health conditions.
Abiad said complaints stem from the fact that drug companies no longer keep extra stock in their warehouses because of Lebanon’s current financial straits, causing a delay.
“Previously, we were suffering from the lack of drugs. Now we suffer from their late arrival. We are continuously working under tough circumstances. Public sector employees are still on strike, and we are doing everything we can,” he said.
Patients who can no longer find their medications are either importing them or opting for alternatives from Turkiye, Armenia, India, Iran and Syria.
The funds the Ministry of Health has allocated for medications for cancer and incurable diseases decreased from $45 million to $35 million per month, due to Lebanon’s current economic crisis.
Abiad said: “Of those funds, $12 million was allocated to cancer and incurable diseases. Now that we have lifted the subsidies on medicines for other diseases, we have directed financial savings to medicines for cancer and incurable diseases and raised the allocated amount to $25 million.”
The Cabinet is set to meet next week to discuss an agenda of “necessary, urgent and emergency topics.”
The agenda includes three points related to securing the needs of the Ministry of Health for the purchase of drugs for cancer and incurable diseases, dialysis supplies and primary materials for the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to the payment of social assistance to workers in government hospitals.
Ismail Sukkarieh, head of the “Health is a Right and Dignity” campaign, told Arab News: “There are dozens of files related to price manipulation, counterfeit drugs, the smuggling of drugs from the Ministry of Health that are then sold on the black market and outside Lebanon.
“These files weren’t appropriately addressed by the Parliament, the parties or the educated elites. This gave the drug mafia the green light and allowed it to exploit the health of cancer patients by withholding medications and reselling them for obscene prices on the black market.”
Cancer patients in Lebanon fear death due to lack of vital medicine
https://arab.news/r6m6f
Cancer patients in Lebanon fear death due to lack of vital medicine
- The patients’ protest on Saturday coincided with World Cancer Day
- Joe Salloum, president of the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists, condemned “the genocide committed against the patients by depriving them of cancer medication”
Chemical weapons watchdog warns of dangers of Syria strikes
"Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination"
THE HAGUE: Strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites risk contaminating and destroying valuable evidence, the head of the international watchdog warned Thursday, admitting the group did not yet know whether sites have been affected.
There has been widespread global concern about the fate of Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons since the dramatic overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
On Monday, Israel said it had struck "remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists".
The director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Fernando Arias, said his group was "following closely" reports of strikes on military facilities.
"We do not know yet whether these strikes have affected chemical weapons related sites. Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination," said Arias in a speech.
"Another real risk would be the destruction of valuable evidence for investigations by different independent international bodies related to past use of chemical weapons," he added.
In 2014, the OPCW set up what it called a "fact-finding mission" to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria.
This team has issued 21 reports covering 74 instances of alleged chemical weapons use, according to the OPCW.
Investigators concluded that chemical weapons were used or likely used in 20 instances.
"Additionally, we also have to consider the risk of any dangerous chemicals or equipment being lost, without any control," warned Arias in his speech.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas opens new embassy building in Vatican City
- Abbas calls on countries to recognize Palestine
- President meets Pope Francis, senior Vatican officials
LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas officially inaugurated the new building of Palestine’s Embassy in Vatican City on Thursday.
Abbas called on countries that have not yet recognized Palestine to do so, and to acknowledge the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the news and information agency WAFA reported.
After raising the Palestinian flag, Abbas spoke of efforts to gain full UN membership and achieve greater international recognition for Palestine.
The Vatican officially recognized the State of Palestine on May 13, 2015. On June 26 of the same year, the Vatican’s Holy See and the Palestinian Authority signed a comprehensive agreement for mutual recognition.
Armenia was the last country — the 149th — to recognize Palestine, on June 21, 2024. There are Palestinian embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions in 110 countries.
The opening ceremony of the new embassy building was attended by several Palestinian Authority officials, including Ziad Abu Amr, the first deputy prime minister, and Issa Kassissieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the Vatican.
Earlier, Abbas had a private audience with Pope Francis and senior Vatican officials. He is also scheduled to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella in Rome.
Blinken says US working to bring home US citizen found in Syria
- In media reports, the man was identified as Travis Timmerman
AQABA, Jordan: The United States is working to get a U.S. citizen found on Thursday in Syria out of the country and bring him home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jordan, where he held meetings to discuss the situation in Syria.
In media reports, the man was identified as Travis Timmerman. Blinken said he had no update on American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, but said the U.S. was continuing work to find him.
At least nine die, six missing as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia
- The coast guard has so far rescued 27 people
- The boat had been carrying at least 42 people when it sank
TUNIS: Tunisia’s coast guard has recovered the bodies of nine migrants while six others are still missing after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast, a judicial official said on Thursday, in the latest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean.
The coast guard has so far rescued 27 people who were on the boat when it broke down and took on water due to bad weather. According to survivors’ testimonies, the boat had been carrying at least 42 people when it sank.
Judge Farid Ben Jha told Reuters that a search was underway for at least six migrants who had been on the boat when it sank off the coast of Chebba.
All the migrants on the boat were from sub-Saharan African countries.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
Pope meets Palestinian leader Abbas at the Vatican
- The pair, who have previously met several times, discussed peace efforts during a private half-hour audience according to the Vatican
- Abbas then met the Holy See’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister, Paul Richard Gallagher
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, who has recently intensified criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, on Thursday received Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, with whom he discussed the “serious” humanitarian situation.
The pair, who have previously met several times, discussed peace efforts during a private half-hour audience according to the Vatican, which released images of them smiling together.
Abbas then met the Holy See’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister, Paul Richard Gallagher.
The discussions focused on the Church’s assistance in “the very serious humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the hoped-for ceasefire, release of all hostages, and “achieving the two-state solution only through dialogue and diplomacy,” a Vatican statement said.
The meeting comes a few days after the release of a photo showing Pope Francis praying in front of a nativity scene at the Vatican, where the baby Jesus’s manger is covered with a black and white keffiyeh scarf, the symbol of Palestinian resistance.
The photo prompted a protest from the Israeli embassy to the Holy See, which asked for the keffiyeh to be removed, diplomatic and Vatican sources told AFP.
Francis has called for peace since Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza.
In recent weeks he has hardened his remarks against the Israeli offensive.
At the end of November, he said that “the invader’s arrogance... prevails over dialogue” in “Palestine,” a rare position that contrasts with the tradition of neutrality of the Holy See.
In extracts from a forthcoming book published in November, he called for a “careful” study as to whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by Israel.
Francis denounced an “immoral” use of force in Lebanon and Gaza at the end of September.
The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and it supports the two-state solution.
Abbas is also due to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella in Rome.