Fight against cancer: Lebanon calls on the international community for help

A ward at the Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, July 23, 2021. The collapse of the Lebanese economy has impoverished hospitals which are increasingly ill-equipped.

AFP-STR

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

On the occasion of World Cancer Day this Friday, February 4 and among the many international declarations, this cry of alarm from the Lebanese Prime Minister.

Lebanon's economic collapse is making access to care particularly difficult for thousands of cancer patients.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Beirut, 

Paul Khalifeh

Najib Mikati has launched a solemn appeal for international aid to fight against cancer in Lebanon.

The sick, he insisted, cannot wait for the State budget and the recovery plan to be adopted, while the country is going through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, which has had an impact on all sectors.

The Prime Minister affirmed that “ 

because of the current delicate conditions 

”, the State no longer has the capacity to face alone the great “ 

humanitarian challenge 

” represented by cancer.

Najib Mikati pointed out that international statistics show that Lebanon is one of the countries with the highest incidence of cancer cases.

Drugs out of stock

Drugs for this disease are still officially subsidized.

This theoretically allows importers to obtain dollars from the Banque du Liban at a lower rate than on the parallel market.

However, central bank reserves are visibly melting and procedures to import these products are often delayed.

The result is a

shortage of stock

and a proliferation of the black market where drugs are sold at prices inaccessible to a majority of Lebanese.

To read also: Lebanon: nearly half of the population requests emergency social assistance

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • Lebanon

  • Cancer

  • Health and medicine

  • Economic crisis

  • Najib Mikati