[MANILA] A new, comprehensive study brings focus to the plight of millions of patients, especially in the developing world, who are condemned to live and die in pain for lack of access to palliative care.
In a comprehensive report on palliative care and pain relief published 13 October in The Lancet, the study says that each year, some 26 million people, including over 2.5 million children, suffer pain which could have been addressed with off-patent, low-cost morphine.
The report says that of the 298.50 tonnes of oral morphine distributed worldwide, only 10.8 tonnes (3.6 per cent) reach the low- and middle-income countries, creating a “pain gap”. Of the 172 countries studied, 25 had almost no morphine and about 100 countries are only able to meet the needs for standard pain relief of a quarter of their population.
Lukas Rudbruch, chair of the Palliative Medicine at the University of Bonn and senior co-author of the report, explains to SciDev.Net that there are serious misunderstandings about the nature of palliative care, including stigma attached to pain-relieving drugs.
This, he says, is especially so for morphine (derived from opium) which makes regulators and health professionals uneasy.
Former Philippine health secretary Manuel Dayrit explains that in countries like the Philippines, morphine is classified as a ‘dangerous drug’, with supply and transport highly regulated.
Only physicians with special permits can prescribe them.
“The question is how to strike a balance between dangerous drugs and access for palliative care purposes,” Dayrit says..."
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