for the sick, a question of “life or death”

In a corridor of the oncology department of the Hôtel-Dieu in Beirut, Joseph Chahine, 80, suffering from lung cancer, breathes: “it’s getting harder and harder“. A bandage hung on his throat, he finds with fatality that his treatment is almost impossible to find, he who must chain immunotherapy sessions every week.

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The Lebanese state is bankrupt and can no longer import the serum to treat Joseph. The last bottles that were still available have disappeared from the Ministry of Health, probably stolen to be resold at a high price. “The drugs can be found in Turkey or other countries, but the price is horrible”observes Marwan, the son of Joseph, who mentions prices of “$3,000 per session”. “We are looking for them through intermediaries, we are not sure that they are the real ones. It is a drug that will mean the life or death of my father.” At the Hôtel-Dieu, the doctors try to reassure the patients. “That it will pass, five more sessions and it will pass“, repeats doctor Fadi Karak to Joseph.

Patients often find themselves destitute and most have to obtain their own medications. But more and more patients no longer have the means to treat themselves. “They will stop the drug and the cancer will most likely come back.laments Dr. Fadi Karak. We can improve patients’ chances of survival, their quality of life, and we are forced, for economic problems, corruption in this country, to stop these drugs. It is very frustrating.” A frustration shared by most of his colleagues, such as Professor Joseph Kattan. Every day he sees the condition of his patients deteriorate for lack of treatment: “It’s catastrophic”he says.

“We are living through the ordeal of these patients every day and we can’t do anything.”

Joseph Kattan, physician

at franceinfo

Doctors can only note the shortage. “We know that there is this disruption of imports and in addition, corruption continues at the Ministry of Health with traffickers who continue to make their profits at the cost of the sick“, annoys Professor Kattan. Patients who, for many of them, do not even bother to come to the hospital, according to this doctor.

In addition to the lack of medicines, there are problems related to Lebanese health insurance, which hardly covers anything anymore. In a country that is sinking into an endless economic crisis, healthcare is becoming a luxury that only a tiny minority can still afford.