Socialist Serfs Reduced to Bartering for Aspirin in Cuba
by Ana León, La Habana, Cuba, Independent Journalist, January 10, 2018
(Published in Spanish by CUBANET, Thursday January 11, 2018)
Translation by Gerardo H. Soto & Jaums Sutton
Reposted with permission of CUBANET
Original Title:
THE NEW TACTIC TO OBTAIN MEDICATIONS IN CUBA
- A NETWORK TO PREVENT DEPENDING ON GOVERNMENT SALES
PERMALINK
Past midnight on January 6th, Lidia, a resident of the central Municipality of Havana, received an unusual visit. Expressing a thousand regrets and with a voice shortened by a crisis of asthma, a neighbor stood at her door to ask if she could exchange a Salbutamol inhaler for a little box containing three blisters of Dipirona, the most popular and harmless of those commercialized in Cuba.
Due to the flashing availability of both products in Cuban pharmacies, the urgency by one of the women provided an opportunity for both to resolve their health problems. Lidia’s case is merely an example of the exchange of medications that Cubans have spontaneously initiated, to avoid depending on the government or remain at the mercy of the usurers of the black market, where one blister of Dipirona can cost 15 pesos, and an inhaler, 30. For retirees, such as Lidia and her neighbor, whose paychecks do not exceed 240 pesos per month, these prices are inaccessible.
Throughout 2017, the scarcity of medications was news in Cuba, a phenomenon due to lack of payment by the government, the insufficient national production and the irregularity of the import of raw materials. Several incidents took place in various pharmacies, unable to provide for a large and needing population and the continuing flow of medications to the black market, a practice developed and sustained by both the sales and the administrative staffs.
The recognition of the problem by the Cuban government does not guarantee the application of an immediate and permanent solution, since it is estimated that approximately 85% of the sources employed by the pharmaceutical industry are imports. Far from recovering, the national production remains stagnant and it has become difficult to satisfy even the priorities, such as cancer and HIV patients.
Facing the impossibility of finding remedy by way of the government, many Cubans are resorting to the feudal method of exchanging “something that they have for something that they need”. In this “give and take” applied to medications, the top ten of those most eagerly sought include analgesics (Dipirona, Paracetamol). Antihypersensitive (Enalapril) and antidepressants (Alprazolam); but the demand has also increased for Omeprazol, Ranitidine, Penicillin, Aspirin, Piroxicam and the Vitamin Complex B, in its injection form.
Some of these medications are in the category of “Controlled”, but the lack of knowledge and the desperation to find relief have resulted in use of them to remedy temporary discomforts, without taking in consideration the secondary effects. While the government does not publish information or statistics on this subject, addiction to certain drugs has increased among the adult Cuban population.
Tramadol, a potent analgesic derived from opium and used to relieve pain generally caused by cancer or rheumatic diseases, is being used, without prescription by a physician, to treat neuralgia, simple headaches or lumbar pain. Through unconventional routes, this medication is reaching people who don’t need it, and its consumption among young adults increases the possibility that early addiction to opioid substances turns into a serious social and health problem.
The lack of pharmaceutical products that relieve common discomforts, sharpens the disorder and irresponsibility reigning in the Cuban society, where people prefer to medicate themselves than standing in line to ask the doctor if it is advisable to take or not take certain pills.
This kind of popular insurgency is unorthodox and counterproductive. Due to the corruption in each step of the pharmaceutical industry, the apathy of the government and increasing domestic negligence have contributed to the proliferation of incidents related to the ingestion of drugs by minors.
Just like the patient's interchange of pharmaceutical products, there is also a reliance on the interchange of medical advice on how to use them and in what amount; a gesture of innocent and dangerous solidarity among citizens that live with daily anxieties, pain and discomfort, resulting from an excessive workload, lack of proper food and the level of stress as a result from living in a society where no effort is crowned with success at the end of the day.
by Ana León, La Habana, Cuba, Independent Journalist, January 10, 2018
(Published in Spanish by CUBANET, Thursday January 11, 2018)
Translation by Gerardo H. Soto & Jaums Sutton
Reposted with permission of CUBANET
Original Title:
THE NEW TACTIC TO OBTAIN MEDICATIONS IN CUBA
- A NETWORK TO PREVENT DEPENDING ON GOVERNMENT SALES
PERMALINK
Past midnight on January 6th, Lidia, a resident of the central Municipality of Havana, received an unusual visit. Expressing a thousand regrets and with a voice shortened by a crisis of asthma, a neighbor stood at her door to ask if she could exchange a Salbutamol inhaler for a little box containing three blisters of Dipirona, the most popular and harmless of those commercialized in Cuba.
Due to the flashing availability of both products in Cuban pharmacies, the urgency by one of the women provided an opportunity for both to resolve their health problems. Lidia’s case is merely an example of the exchange of medications that Cubans have spontaneously initiated, to avoid depending on the government or remain at the mercy of the usurers of the black market, where one blister of Dipirona can cost 15 pesos, and an inhaler, 30. For retirees, such as Lidia and her neighbor, whose paychecks do not exceed 240 pesos per month, these prices are inaccessible.
Throughout 2017, the scarcity of medications was news in Cuba, a phenomenon due to lack of payment by the government, the insufficient national production and the irregularity of the import of raw materials. Several incidents took place in various pharmacies, unable to provide for a large and needing population and the continuing flow of medications to the black market, a practice developed and sustained by both the sales and the administrative staffs.
The recognition of the problem by the Cuban government does not guarantee the application of an immediate and permanent solution, since it is estimated that approximately 85% of the sources employed by the pharmaceutical industry are imports. Far from recovering, the national production remains stagnant and it has become difficult to satisfy even the priorities, such as cancer and HIV patients.
Facing the impossibility of finding remedy by way of the government, many Cubans are resorting to the feudal method of exchanging “something that they have for something that they need”. In this “give and take” applied to medications, the top ten of those most eagerly sought include analgesics (Dipirona, Paracetamol). Antihypersensitive (Enalapril) and antidepressants (Alprazolam); but the demand has also increased for Omeprazol, Ranitidine, Penicillin, Aspirin, Piroxicam and the Vitamin Complex B, in its injection form.
Some of these medications are in the category of “Controlled”, but the lack of knowledge and the desperation to find relief have resulted in use of them to remedy temporary discomforts, without taking in consideration the secondary effects. While the government does not publish information or statistics on this subject, addiction to certain drugs has increased among the adult Cuban population.
Tramadol, a potent analgesic derived from opium and used to relieve pain generally caused by cancer or rheumatic diseases, is being used, without prescription by a physician, to treat neuralgia, simple headaches or lumbar pain. Through unconventional routes, this medication is reaching people who don’t need it, and its consumption among young adults increases the possibility that early addiction to opioid substances turns into a serious social and health problem.
The lack of pharmaceutical products that relieve common discomforts, sharpens the disorder and irresponsibility reigning in the Cuban society, where people prefer to medicate themselves than standing in line to ask the doctor if it is advisable to take or not take certain pills.
This kind of popular insurgency is unorthodox and counterproductive. Due to the corruption in each step of the pharmaceutical industry, the apathy of the government and increasing domestic negligence have contributed to the proliferation of incidents related to the ingestion of drugs by minors.
Just like the patient's interchange of pharmaceutical products, there is also a reliance on the interchange of medical advice on how to use them and in what amount; a gesture of innocent and dangerous solidarity among citizens that live with daily anxieties, pain and discomfort, resulting from an excessive workload, lack of proper food and the level of stress as a result from living in a society where no effort is crowned with success at the end of the day.