“My children will starve to death,” says Abir Sayed, a 35-year-old housewife. Since she delivered her twins four months ago after a long period of wait during which time she and her husband, a 42-year-old taxi driver, had seen several doctors and she had been subjected to different surgeries and treatments, Sayed has been trying unsuccessfully to get bags of infant formula for her children.

Unaffordable alternatives

“My children will starve to death,” says Abir Sayed, a 35-year-old housewife. Since she delivered her twins four months ago after a long period of wait during which time she and her husband, a 42-year-old taxi driver, had seen several doctors and she had been subjected to different surgeries and treatments, Sayed has been trying unsuccessfully to get bags of infant formula for her children.

Unaffordable alternatives

Infant formula supply (needed by some 250,000 Egyptian infants) has been declining due to the economic crisis and a shortage of hard currency needed to import it. For ten years, the successive governments have imported infant formula from EU countries, mainly France, Switzerland and Belgium, and then subsidized it in two ways: first, through Ministry of Health (MoH) health units which provide infant formula to infants aged less than six months for L.E. 3 pounds a bag (less than US$0.5) – total subsidization. Second, through pharmacies which provide infant formula for infants aged 6-12 months for L.E. 18 a bag (nearly US$ 2) – semi subsidization. One alternative is unsubsidized infant formula at L.E. 70 a bag (about US$9). However, since a baby needs two to three bags per week, this option is unviable because most Egyptian families cannot afford it.

Increased beneficiaries

Pediatrician Rehab Salim says day after day the number of people eligible for subsidization is on the rise due to skyrocketing prices of unsubsidized milk and increased cases of caesarean births, premature babies, and mothers’ inability to breastfeed their babies for various pathological conditions such as sore nipples and cancer.

Salim argues that women’s work and other unknown reasons cause some women to produce low or even no breast milk and thus relying on bottled milk. Some low-income families, she says, dilute cow milk with water or goat milk before feeding it to their children, which sharply lowers their immunity and subjects them to different types of allergies.

Torturous trip

Abir says every week or even sometimes every day she must travel to Cairo with one of the twins on her shoulder with the other at a neighbor’s to go to one of the major outlets of the Egyptian Pharmaceutical Trading Company (EPTC) or to pharmacies or charities to get a milk bag that lasts no more than two days.

Pharmacist Hussein Qandil says the amounts of infant formula supplied to pharmacies have greatly declined from 12 bags a month four months ago, which was not enough at all, to only four bags. He maintains that this is not the first crisis, but it is surely the most difficult. In 2011, after receiving a number of complaints, MoH officials analyzed samples of infant formula and found out that it was unfit for human consumption because it contained eggs and parts of insects. When asked for an explanation, France said these types of formula were not sold in European markets, contrary to the terms of import announced by the EPTC.

Worsened threat

While the Ministry of Health blames pharmacists for poor distribution, Medicine Department head at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce Ali Owf says the first one to blame is the MoH because it has reduced the amount distributed to pharmacies and Minister of Health Ahmad Imad has not yet signed a tender to import enough amounts on the pretext that it was his predecessor Adel Adawi who should have signed it.