Medicines supply program launches distress call to save patients in Yemen

SANAA, Nov. 12 (YPA) – The medicines supply program in Sanaa on Sunday launched a distress appeal to provide life-saving medicines to nearly 170,000 people in Yemen.

The program said in a press conference held today that the continuation of the war and the siege on the people of Yemen threatens to stop the supply of life-saving medicines to more than 170,000 vulnerable patients.

The program demanded that Sanaa airport and Hodeida port be opened for the arrival of medicines without restrictions and allowing the entry of pharmaceutical aid without conditions or detention, calling UN and international organizations to cooperate effectively with the program, and to provide life-saving medicines.

For his part, Dr. Samir Al-Sanfi, director general of the medicines supply program, explained that the program provides high-cost medicine for free to 169,627 patients with chronic and rare diseases and stunting.

“We are experiencing difficulty in providing life-saving, vital and refrigerated medicines, and the high cost of their access as a result of the complexities of the blockade and the closure of sea and air ports,” Al-Sanfi said.

Al-Sanfi explained that the UN aid mechanism on the medicine side is ineffective according to the needs and the humanitarian tragedy created by the siege. He added that diabetes, dwarfism, cancerous tumors, liver and hemophilia have recorded a remarkable increase during the eight years of the siege.

The program director general indicated that “cutting salaries and state revenues by the aggression coalition represented the biggest difficulties facing the program and caused a shortage of its cadres and ability to work”.

He pointed out that as a result of the blockade and the closure of air freight to Sanaa airport; international companies have refrained from providing their medicines in Yemen.

YPA