Though human beings have developed much in the field of health and medicine, yet it is very unfortunate to note that there are millions of people in the world who are not able to benefit from these developments. This simply means that the revolution in the field of health and medicine does not cure the diseases of those people who are most vulnerable to them i.e. the poor.
Even though there are some diseases that can be easily cured and does not require much spending; however, there are certain serious diseases that can take the lives of the people and mostly the same are very expensive to cure. This is really pathetic as it would mean that even curing oneself from disease has become a luxury.
One of the terrifying diseases in our world is asthma. According to a recent study conducted by Dr Zaheer Babar from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland and Dr Karen Bissell from the University’s School of Population Health and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and published in the journal Pharmaco Economics, globally an estimated 300 million people suffer from asthma but unfortunately many of them living in low and middle income countries do not have access to quality assured, affordable asthma essential medicine.
The study investigated the availability, pricing and affordability of the three main asthma medicines (beclometasone, budesonide and salbutamol) which are on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Model List of Essential Medicines - in 52 selected low- and middle-income countries. It found that essential asthma medicines are still largely unavailable and unaffordable for most in low-income countries.
"The provision of affordable essential medicines is one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, but there are millions of people suffering from asthma in low and middle income countries who cannot access the essential asthma medicines recommended by the WHO. The medicines are either not available, or if they are available, they are so expensive that people cannot afford to buy them," said Dr Babar to Citizen News Service (CNS).
If Afghanistan is considered in this regard, it would be clear that there is not enough awareness regarding the disease; moreover, even those who know about the disease they cannot do much to fight against it as the accessibility to medicines for the common people is really very poor. The prices of medicines are very high as they are imported from other countries, and in most of the cases, their quality is also very much pathetic. There have been many occasions when the people have lost their lives because of low-quality medicine imported from neighboring countries.
It is really important for Afghan authorities to pay attention in this regard and strive to take serious actions to minimize the threats of the diseases like asthma and at the same time take steps to improve the accessibility of the common people to proper medical facilities and medicines.