TEHRAN, Jul 13 (NNN-IRNA) – Reza’s type 2 diabetes has always worried him, but raging COVID-19 has become another source of distress alongside the difficulties of acquiring the drugs he needs for survival.
Since the U.S. sanctions have been affecting Iran’s import of medicine from abroad, getting the everyday insulin shots has increasingly become a troublesome issue for Reza, who only wanted to be identified by his surname.
Due to the lack of much-needed medicine, the wellbeing and even his life, and those of many others like him, are put in danger, the 69-year-old Iranian man warned.
“You could say my life depends on them, especially on the insulin injections that I receive,” Reza said, complaining that his children and loved ones sometimes have to travel far and wide to get his pills and shots.
Yet, with the advent of COVID-19, now his family members are risking their own health by going to crowded drugstores at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is still rampant.
Iran reported over 3.37 million COVID-19 cases and more than 85,000 deaths, since the country reported its first cases in Feb, 2020. Today, the country is enduring a fifth wave of the pandemic, driven by the spread of the Delta variant.
“Some even tell me that their loved ones have been infected with COVID-19 because they were trying to get them shots or medicines,” he said, slamming the U.S. restrictions imposed on Iran for importing medicines as “beyond evil.”
But not just those suffering from diabetes are experiencing these problems. Paria Abdollahi, an Iranian high school student, diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) about four years ago, has to take pills in order to alleviate the symptoms over the past eight months.
“There are some ADHD pills that cannot be exported to Iran because of the sanctions, and their effects are 10 times better than the ones available in the country,” she said.
This situation, she complained, has directly affected her ability to concentrate and study, since she has not received proper medication. She thus had to take replacement medicines and even these have gotten expensive.
Abdollahi’s mother, a nurse, has seen many Iranians struggling to find the medicines they need. Some have to travel to the Iranian capital of Tehran to purchase overpriced pills.
“One single pill, not the entire tablet, might cost around 30 million Rial (roughly 120 U.S. dollars) … and many of the sick are of the lower income classes,” she said.
The effect of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s medicine imports is nothing new, but since the pandemic broke out, its negative impact has become much more severe.
Last Thursday, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, termed U.S. sanctions as “a crime against humanity,” noting that the negative results of unilateral sanctions on Iran’s public health, amid the current pandemic and its consequences, have increased.– NNN-IRNA
