Global medicines shortages are forcing HIV patients to travel to India for treatment, lead to heart surgery cancellations in Vietnam, and push British anesthetists to use outdated drugs, UK newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing British medical professionals
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2022) Global medicines shortages are forcing HIV patients to travel to India for treatment, lead to heart surgery cancellations in Vietnam, and push British anesthetists to use outdated drugs, UK newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing British medical professionals.
According to the report, the shortage in medicines has been caused by delays at ports, stockpiling, and COVID-19 lockdowns, with 83% of UK pharmacies having experienced a significant increase in drug supply issues.
"Shortages can occur for a range of reasons such as a shortage of raw materials, logistical issues or an unexpected spike in demand," Rick Greville, a director at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, told the newspaper.
Piotr Ozieranski, a senior lecturer at Bath University, told The Telegraph that even "minor issues" like stockpiling or public health campaigns could "translate into us not being able to access a drug," adding that such shortages are "often" caused by manufacturing issues or raw material shortages in India or China.
The United Kingdom has been facing drug shortages for the past six months, with the British government issuing several "medicine supply notifications," which pointed to the shortages of painkillers used in childbirth, migraine treatments, a drug used to treat prostate cancer, and a certain brand of insulin. Hormone therapies, thrombolytic drugs, and osteoporosis treatments are also scarce in the UK, according to The Telegraph.
Some anesthetists in the UK have to resort to drugs and techniques used 10 to 15 years ago due to the shortages of anesthesia drug remifentanil, according to Mike Nathanson, the president of the Association of Anaesthetists.
"It's a national shortage. We've been told that the amount available is somewhere between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of normal levels. And it is a key drug that's used both as part of general anesthesia and also in critical care, for sedation of patients," Nathanson was quoted by the media.
The UK is not the only country experiencing drug shortages. The United States is experiencing a shortage of contrast dye, fludarabine, and cytarabine, Australia is short of the type 2 diabetes drug semaglutide, and Vietnamese hospitals are canceling surgeries due to the shortage of protamine sulfate. India is suffering from the nationwide shortage of HIV antiretrovirals, while many African counties experience shortages of GlaxoSmithKline's rotavirus vaccine, according to the report.
