More than 25 million people dying in agony without morphine

More than 25 million people, including 2.5 million children, die in agony every year around the world, for want of morphine or other palliative care, The Guardian reported on Friday.

Poor people cannot get pain relief in many countries of the world because their needs are overlooked or the authorities are so worried about the potential illicit use of addictive opioids that they will not allow their importation, according to a special report from a commission set up by the Lancet medical journal.

In Haiti, for instance, says the report, there are no nursing homes or hospices for the dying and most have to suffer without pain relief at home.

The report underlined that the commission’s three-year inquiry found that nearly half of all deaths globally, 25.5 million a year, involve serious suffering for want of pain relief and palliative care. A further 35.5 million people live with chronic pain and distress. Of the 61 million total, 5.3 million are children. More than 80% of the suffering takes place in low and middle-income countries.

Morphine is hard to obtain in some countries and virtually unobtainable in others. In some of the world’s poorest countries, such as Haiti, Afghanistan and many countries in Africa, oral morphine in palliative care is virtually non-existent, the report read.

Oral and injectable morphine is out of patent, but costs vary widely and it is cheaper in affluent countries like the USA than in poor countries, the report noted.

The commission recommends that all countries put in place a relatively inexpensive package of effective palliative care for end of life conditions that cause suffering, including HIV, cancers, heart disease, injuries and dementia, the report added.

Source : Mena