The scale of the morphine scandal

New figures today shed light on the scale of the scandal we highlighted in Friday’s Unreported World from Senegal.

The morphine shortages we showed there, leaving people dying in pain for no good reason, are being repeated in 80 per cent of the world.

The World Palliative Care Association has taken data from the World Health Organisation and come up with a shocking estimate that 18 million people died in 2012 without morphine. The three best countries, if I can put it that way, in which to alleviate pain are Austria, the USA and UK.

The three worst are Pakistan, Morocco and Mozambique.

Since last week’s programme a number of people have contacted us to say they have witnessed very similar conditions all over the developing world.

A mixture of bureaucracy, ignorance and fear conspires to ensure nowhere near enough morphine is imported for the level of patients in desperate need.

In a country like Pakistan where the raw materials of morphine – poppy – are so plentiful that fact seems especially perverse.

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Africa’s drug problemFour-year-old cancer sufferer Abdurahmanecameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 1:43:49 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIKrishnan and Abdurahmane cameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 3:37:33 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIKrishnan in Senegal: “I felt overwhelmed. Today I feel more angry about it”cameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 6:08:39 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIAround 80 per cent of world’s morphine is consumed by the six richest countriescameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 6:11:30 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark II“This is really, really painful. I just want help”cameramake Canonheight 500flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/18/2014 8:18:47 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIDakar’s Aristide Le Dantec Hospital – where Senegal’s only child cancer ward is located.cameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 2:16:18 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIPoliticians were largely unaware of the problem until a Human Rights Watch reportcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 2:25:34 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IISenegal’s Catch-22 – doctors do not prescribe moprphine because there is none. The government doesn’t order it because it is not being prescribed.cameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 2:26:21 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIMany patients in Senegal have not heard of morphinecameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 4:33:27 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIIt costs less than $1 a week to comprehensively manage pain with morphinecameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/22/2014 4:33:08 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 12:40:42 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 3:07:05 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 4:29:26 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 4:41:37 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 4:44:29 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIEach year in Senegal an estimated 70,000 people are in need of pain reliefcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 4:51:58 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark IIHowever, Senegal only orders enough morphine for a couple of hundred patients each year.cameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 4:45:22 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark II80 per cent of the world has insufficient access to pain reliefcameramake Canonheight 700flash 16camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Elemoriginaldate 3/25/2014 5:05:13 PMwidth 700orientation 1cameramodel Canon EOS 5D Mark II

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The scale of the morphine scandal