Insulin crisis in Iraq

Abstract

1860 www.thelancet.com Vol 369 June 2, 2007 1 Schrauder A, Henke-Gendo C, Seidemann K, et al. Varicella vaccination in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Lancet 2007; 369: 1232. 2 Campsall PA, Au NHC, Prendiville JS, Speert DP, Tang R, Thomas EE. Detection and genotyping of varicella-zoster virus by Taq-Man allelic discrimination Real-time PCR. J Clin Microbiol 2004; 42: 1409–13. 3 Parker SP, Quinlivan M, Taha Y, Breuer J. Genotyping of varicella-zoster virus and the discrimination of Oka vaccine strains by Taq-Man real time PCR. J Clin Microbiol; 2006: 44: 3911–14. 4 Takayama M, Takayama N. New method of diff erentiating wild-type varicella-zoster virus (VZV) strains from Oka varicella vaccine strain by VZV ORF 6-based PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. J Clin Virol 2004; 29: 113–19. 5 Espy MJ, Uhl JR, Sloan LM, et al. Real-time PCR in clinical microbiology: applications for routine laboratory testing. Clin Microbiol Rev 2006; 19: 165–256. available insulin last until the end of the crisis; 149 (25%) were using insulin that had expired in December, 2006; 58 (10%) had changed to oral glucose-lowering drugs; and 91 (15%) were taking insulin imported from neighbouring countries with no quality controls. This problem is going to get worse in the next few months when the environ mental temperature increases to 50oC and the storage and transport of insulin becomes more diffi cult. In fact, the situation in Basrah is quite stable; we cannot image the situation in Baghdad and in areas where there has been extensive migration between cities. Diabetes care in Iraq needs the help of local Middle Eastern and UN agencies. The insulin might be in the country, but the distribution of the drug between cities needs safety, which is far from being achieved.