Pain crisis
25 million people cannot get morphine and die in agony
Julia Korowski, XX2 century, according to The Guardian: More than 25 million people dying in agony without morphine every year
Twenty-first century: drones are flying over the earth, AI is beating man in go, and 25 million people die in agony every year because they can't get morphine.
Journal The Lancet gathered a group of experts to understand how things are with palliative care in different states. It turned out that the poorest segments of the population, in particular, patients from low- and middle-income countries, are often left alone with their suffering. And almost half of the people who died in 2015 died in agony.
The commission created by The Lancet (Lancet Commission) magazine included experts from the USA, Great Britain, Mexico, South Africa and other countries. They selected from the International Classification of Diseases 20 diseases and 15 symptoms that cause severe pain, physical and psychological suffering. Based on WHO data for 2015, researchers calculated the number of patients – both those who live with these disorders and those who have already died – and estimated how many of them need palliative care and pain relief.
The results showed that almost half (45%) of all those who died in 2015 died in agony – this is more than 25 million people, including 2.5 million children under the age of 15. Another 35 million suffer from chronic pain and severe symptoms. More than 80% of sufferers live in middle- or low-income countries where it is difficult or impossible to get palliative care. For example, there are simply no nursing homes and hospices in Haiti, so terminal patients and elderly people are sent home to die, where they suffer from pain and lack of air. "Death in Haiti is cruel and terribly premature. No explanations, no empathy and no peace, especially for the poor," says Dr. Antonia P. Eyssallenne from the University of Miami.
Getting morphine in this country is very difficult – as in most middle- and low-income countries. On the one hand, the price of the drug contributes to this: in poor countries it is much higher than in developed countries. On the other – "opiophobia", the fear that increasing the availability of opiates will automatically lead to the spread of drug addiction. Many countries do not provide morphine to all those in need: Mexico covers only 36% of the need, China – 16%, Vietnam – 9%, Russia - 8%. "The world is suffering from a pain crisis: tens of millions of adults and children in the poorest countries live and die with terrible pain that could have been prevented, and do not have access to morphine," says one of the authors of the study, Professor Felicia Knaul.
The commission members suggested that States use the "Essential Package" of medicines, medical equipment and personnel. They recommended relatively cheap medicines that can alleviate the suffering of millions of people. Most of them can be obtained in any country in the world. Morphine is an exception, but the authors urge to increase its availability and purchase the drug both in the form of injections and in the form of tablets.
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