Pakistan: Heart patients facing difficulties as Heparin injection becomes extinct

Apr 20, 2023

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 20 : Heart patients in Pakistan are facing difficulties in their treatment because the important Heparin injection for the treatment of heart diseases has become extinct, Pakistan vernacular media Daily Dunya reported.
The injection is used for thinning the blood in heart patients. But there is a heavy shortage of this injection in government and private hospitals.
According to the sources, the price of this injection is 600 rupees but it is being sold for 3000 rupees in the black market. Poor patients are suffering very heavily from it. Hospitals believe that it is a false shortage, according to Daily Dunya.
The media recently reported that the ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan has badly hit the healthcare system where patients have been struggling for essential medicines. The lack of forex reserves in the country has affected Pakistan's capacity to import the required medicines or the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) used in domestic production.
As a result, local pharmaceutical manufacturers have been forced to slash their production as patients suffer in hospitals. Doctors are forced to not perform surgeries due to the shortage of drugs and medical equipment.
As per Pakistan media reports, the operation theatres are left with less than the two-week stock of anaesthetics needed for sensitive surgeries, including for heart, cancer and kidney. The situation might also result in job losses in hospitals in Pakistan, further increasing the miseries of people.