The end of the month is eternal in Cuba, when the promises of the rulers accumulate. This Sunday the situation of last May 25 was repeated, when Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that at the end of that month the electrical situation should improve –something that 60 days later has neither happened nor is expected. Luis Armado Alarcón, CEO of the MedSol Laboratories Company, emulated the Cuban ruler this July 24, when he said he expected that “between the end of this month of July and the beginning of Augustthe population can once again access medicines that have presented a productive deficit”.
It’s already the end of July and pharmacies have no idea when that time will come. This Monday, a reporter from 14ymedio I found a pharmacy in Centro Habana empty and with its employees playing with their mobile phones. “When does montelukast come in?” He asked the workers who couldn’t give him a reason for the arrival of the medication, used for asthma.
Montelukast is one of the drugs that has not been available for months and that the official press mentioned this Sunday. Granma reported the visit of Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella to a BioCubaFarma drug-producing plant, which served to announce the arrival of raw materials that will make it possible to recover products that are absent from the basic table, including enalapril (antihypertensive), sertraline (antidepressant ), moxifloxacin (antibiotic), loratadine 10 mg (antihistamine), clopidogrel (antiplatelet), and montelukast.
The official did not leave too much room for hope and, immediately afterwards, admitted that with the raw material obtained the coverage of two or three months and not the whole year would be resolved.
“We see with optimism how the workers of the Cuban pharmaceutical industry are incorporated, tirelessly, into production work in the plants,” said Perdomo Di-Lella. However, the official did not leave too much room for hope and, immediately afterwards, admitted that with the raw material obtained, the coverage of two or three months and not the whole year would be resolved.
Luis Armado Alarcón accused the “blockade” of drug shortages, and not in a generic way, but very specifically. “Sometimes it is said that we want to use the blockade as a justification and that is not the case. Today we have an aerosol plant, in which Salbutamol and Fluticasone are produced, for which the usual supplier stopped supplying us with gas, and the country has had to import Salbutamol products to guarantee that patients have this drug. We continue to take steps to find other suppliers and stabilize production,” he added.
“I am allergic, I suffer from rhinitis and they give me severe crises,” says Juan Lázaro, a man from Sancti Spiritus who must buy ketotifen from the left since he stopped finding it in pharmacies in December 2021. “I have been getting it out there, buying it for 200 pesos on the street, but I am not doing the treatment as I should, every 8 hours. I also have to use fluticasone and, right now, I have a vacuum cleaner, but it is for emergencies, it is not to use it all the time. The drug, a corticosteroid also used for asthma, is sold in drug groups and on the street, but it costs 500 pesos per applicator.
“I have been getting it out there, buying it for 200 pesos on the street, but I am not doing the treatment as I should, every 8 hours”
For Juan Lázaro, rhinitis is not only a problem that generates constant crises due to lack of air and discomfort. Since the arrival of covid-19 on the island, it has also caused labor problems. Due to his employment, he is forced to visit different entities that often continue without letting him pass because they interpret his rhinitis as a symptom of coronavirus. “And that’s because I can’t control my allergy,” he laments.
Barbara uses benadriline, as diphenhydramine is known in Cuba, another type of antihistamine that hasn’t been in pharmacies for so long that she can’t remember. “I buy it on the left, at 200 or 150 a strip, but when she appears,” she admits. In addition, at 62 years old she is not the only condition of hers. She is also diabetic and needs to measure her glucose and insulin levels at night, but she also has blood pressure problems, very common on the Island, and she uses enalapril, one of the scarcest and most in-demand medications. .
Lastly, she has Ménière’s syndrome and needs gravinol for dizziness, which she can’t find either, so she has to replace it with betahistine, which comes from Spain. “To begin with, start adding. And then get it, when it’s not one, it’s another and you have to order it and look for who, because none of this can be found,” she laments. The last time she consulted a Cuban specialist on how she could alleviate her dizziness without medication at hand, the doctor replied: “You put one hand on your waist and the other on your head. That will control you.”
In Villa Clara, the situation is not too different. The pharmacies of Camajuaní, Remedios and Taguayabón also continue to have little availability of medicines. “Currently there are only syrups and some other liquids, so a large number of medical prescriptions are rejected daily,” says Yantiel, according to his balance at the moment there are no medications for diseases such as asthma or lung conditions, for hypertension, antibiotics, for the nerves or calming. Of course, there are no contraceptives either.
In this province, according to sources from ’14ymedio’, the distribution was until months ago in the hands of the presidents of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) who went with the money, the recipes and the cards
Yantiel explains that the deficit accelerated at the end of the first year of the pandemic, but the problems persist. Meanwhile, the same medicines continue to be marketed on the streets, but at alternate prices. “Some speculate about the collusion of pharmacy administrators with resellers, as in the case of contraceptive pills. In pharmacies there are none, however, on the street, they are at a price of 350 each strip and the same happens with other medications,” he says.
In this province, according to sources of 14ymedioUntil months ago, the distribution was in the hands of the presidents of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) who went with the money, the prescriptions and the cards used by the chronically ill to register their medications. Now, things have changed and each person goes to the pharmacy with their prescriptions, but many medicines do not arrive and, when they do, they do not satisfy all the needs.
In Bayamo, on the other hand, they can be satisfied because the desired enalapril is not lacking, although “the rest of the medicines have to wait for the pharmacies to be stocked to find out about their existence,” explains Jeancarlos. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of announcements on Telegram. Azithromycin for 250, Naproxen for 90 and even Viagra for 150.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
