Nine children died this year due to the lack of medicines in the Oncology Department at Benghazi Children Hospital. The child died while this report was being written.

Mubarak has lost hope for the spinal cord transplant operation that would cure his son Saad of his spinal cancer. The operation in Jordan would cost LYD 500,000 (USD 365,000). “Even if the state ensured treatment, I do not have housing and accommodation expenses,” said Mubarak, who already traveled abroad with his son more than once in search of treatment and sold everything he owned.

Nine children died this year due to the lack of medicines in the Oncology Department at Benghazi Children Hospital. The child died while this report was being written.

Mubarak has lost hope for the spinal cord transplant operation that would cure his son Saad of his spinal cancer. The operation in Jordan would cost LYD 500,000 (USD 365,000). “Even if the state ensured treatment, I do not have housing and accommodation expenses,” said Mubarak, who already traveled abroad with his son more than once in search of treatment and sold everything he owned.

Mubarak, a resident of Sultan, 140 km west of Benghazi, says his son has been suffering from spinal tumor since 2012 and doctors recently said his situation is serious. “It is inconceivable that a rich country like Libya cannot cover the costs of the treatment of such children,” he said.

Mubarak has four other children, who are taken care of by their grandfather while he and his wife travel with their son for treatment. Now they have no other choice but to keep Saad in the Oncology Department at Children’s Hospital, where there is a lack of medicines. Every three months, Mubarak has to pay a back-injection (costing between 50 to 200 dinars USD 35 to 140) at his own expense.

Saad is one of dozens of children in the hospital, all suffering from various health complications because of the lack of medicines. According to the Information and Statistics Department, eight children died within five months, from January 2, 2016 until May 17, 2016. These are only cases of children who have died inside the hospital.

Medicine provisions

Huda Querrey, Director of the Children’s Hospital Information Office, said medicines have begun to decrease within the department since 2015, and parents have complained as they cannot afford better treatment. “Most of them do not have enough for a hyperthermia medicine, let alone a dose fetching up to three thousands dinars and more.”

Querrey learned from the Minister of Health in the Interim Government, Reida El Oakley, that he transferred one million Libyan dinars to the hospital management to purchase medicines for patients with tumors. However, Querrey claimed that no drug has yet been provided. They had to launch a fund-raising campaign entitled “Start yourself” from January until June, in collaboration with some charities, to provide children with medicine. The Ministry of Health has not yet supplied any medicines to the hospital.

Nader Querrey (not related), Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, said the amount was actually transferred and consequently, a company was contracted to supply the required medication, however, the company violated the contract terms, supplying about eight varieties of Indian origin, rather than European origin set out in the company bid. As a result, the shipment was not passed on to the department although the hospital already received it.

Urgent cases

Huda Querrey deemed this unjustified. She said she sent a letter to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in August to consider seven urgent cases suffering from disease complications. The Undersecretary said that the children’s travel for treatment was approved. However, after traveling, some were surprised that there was no financial mandate and the treatment decision was incorrect and that the embassy in Egypt received a letter from the minister to stop treatment abroad.

This was confirmed by Abdul-Qader Abdul Rahim, Amer’s father. He traveled to get a CAT scan for his son, which is unavailable at the hospital, and was surprised that the treatment was stopped by the Minister of Health. However, after he explained his conditions that do not allow him to obtain the scan at his expense, the embassy addressed the hospital to perform the scan, free of charge.

Amer’s father said he buys chemotherapy doses at his own expense every 20 days, and sometimes he has to travel to Egypt to get it. If the dose is delayed, the health of his son worsens. He also has to travel for a CAT scan that determines the body’s response to the treatment, which costs about ten thousand dinars (USD 4300) in Tunisia.

His son once waited for a CT scan for three months and he did not get its costs, making doctors continue to give chemical doses without knowing the extent of the body’s response.

The country situation

According to the Undersecretary, treatment in Egypt was stopped because of the accumulation of the Libyan state debt to the Alexandria Cancer Centre, which had contracted with the Ministry to receive the cases sent for treatment. The Ministry has no solution to this problem. They sent letters to all the authorities relevant to the Prime Ministry and the Parliament Health Committee and humanitarian organizations to consider the matter. “It is serious and cannot be delayed,” said Nader Querrey.

Querrey attributed the lack of radiography devices in the Oncology Department to the companies’ reluctance to complete the projects of radiotherapy and nuclear therapy program supposed to exist in the radiology department at Hawari Hospital and the Benghazi Medical Center, due to events experience by Benghazi in particular and Libya in general.

Dr. Rihab Shambash, an oncology specialist at Benghazi Medical Center, confirmed the previous problems mentioned, adding that because of the poor hospital situation, most patients are diagnosed in advanced stages, requiring that they start treatment as soon as possible. “However, due to the lack of treatment and patient’s inability to buy it because of high cost, we are forced to delay treatment, and to stop it in some cases. Although some charities try to assist in the provision of doses, the issue needs for ongoing support.”