Heath Ministry supplies 25k anti-RH injections to ease shortage

CAIRO - 6 March 2017: The Egyptian Ministry of Health is testing 25,000 anti-RH injections to meet shortages in the local market, Minister Ahmed Emad announced Monday, according to

Youm7

.

After being tested in the National Organization for Drug and Control Research (NODCAR), the injections will be distributed to 69 outlets over six governorates over the next few days, the minister added. He said the ministry is trying to ease the medicine shortage.

Since 2014, Egypt has suffered the disappearance of hundreds of medicines in pharmacies nationwide due to the dollar crisis; the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) struggled to provide hard currency to other banks so importers, including pharmaceutical companies, could find the dollar liquidity required to buy their raw materials. However, the medicine shortage eased after the government floated the national currency last November.

In October 2016 Egyptian pharmacies suffered a severe shortage of anti-RH injections; gynecologists warned that the shortage would cause an increase in miscarriage rates. Pregnant woman should be injected with anti-RH immunoglobulin within 72 hours after giving birth. If a negative-RH woman is not injected with this antibody, her next pregnancy is likely to result in a miscarriage.

The price of one injection was estimated at around 400 EGP (US$ 23.831) before devaluating the currency; now, it is sold for 720 EGP (US$ 42.895), an employee at the state-owned company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) told Egypt Today on Monday.