Sancti Spíritus/Some ranges but others are young. They are united by the need to get some medication that is so scarce in state pharmacies. On the outskirts of the major parochial church of the Holy Spirit, patients or relatives of chronic patients seeking fever, diabetes or asthma and asthma are agglomerate every Saturday and that are distributed free of charge in the premises, after presenting a medical recipe.
In the corner of the Boulevard and the Castle Honorato Park, Belkis is one of which awaits its turn and is part of the more than 2.5 million Cubans who are diagnosed with hypertension. “I come to see if they were supplied in april or some other medication that allows me to have controlled the pressure because right now I have good days and others with very dangerous peaks.” The 66 -year -old spirit has been attending the parish for months in search of the pills it needs.
“I have a card but since it started this year I have not been able to buy in the pharmacy all the medication that I need, because sometimes it comes and other times not,” he tells 14ymedio. The shortage of drugs in Cuba mainly affects the products that are made on the island, which corresponds to 80% of the basic picture. “To say that this situation will be resolved in the next few days would be irresponsible,” admitted Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda, last year and the situation has only worsened since then.
/ 14ymedio
For Belkis, the distribution made by the Catholic Church in the city has made the difference between “ending every week in the body of a hospital or leading a more or less normal life.” In the place, medical accessories and devices that relieve the situation of bedridden patients are also distributed. “I came for disposable diapers for my grandmother who has been prostrated more than a year,” clarifies a young man who has also benefited, in the past, gauze, cotton and cream to combat the elderly’s crafts. “I don’t even go to state pharmacies because I know there is none of that.”
Other religious communities, such as the growing evangelical groups, also support with medications, vitamins, nutritional accessories and supplies for which hospitalized time must spend time. The black market offers a wide variety of drugs and health products, but public health authorities warn of Dangers to buy these preparations. “I feel safer to come here than to look for them on the street,” Belkis acknowledges about that he touches his turn in the small dispensary of the parish. If this Saturday manages to get the enalapril, he will have “a few days without scares,” he says.
