A DRUG used by female breast cancer patients to stop their menstrual cycle has now completely run out and is not even available from the private sector.
Despite a number of public warnings that started over three weeks ago, DISY deputy and head of Europa Donna Cyprus Stella Kyriakidou yesterday announced that not only had nothing been done, the specific injections had run out.
“There is a lack of this medicine, which is a necessity to female breast cancer patients as it stops their menstruation,” said Kyriacidou. She explained the injection was an obligatory part of the sufferers’ therapy.
“Despite me raising the alarm over this issue three weeks ago, I haven’t had a response from the Health Ministry,” she added. “And now we have reached the point where patients can’t even get it from the private sector – something I was informed about today.”
A 25-year-old woman called Kyriakidou and told her she was already a week late taking the injection. “Another woman from Limassol told me she had bought it from Greece,” she said.
At €198 for each injection, Kyriakidou has been pushing the Health Ministry to put the drug up for tenders so patients can receive if for free. In the meantime, patients were advised to buy it and keep the receipt so they could receive a refund from the state. But now, going private is not even an option.
Kyriakidou said she’d been told there would be around 50 injections distributed to the island’s oncology centres yesterday afternoon, which would be used by those who needed them most urgently. But last night she was informed the medicine would be available today instead.
“We demand a response from the Health Ministry,” she said, adding that she had no idea where the injections were to come from. “The Health Minister should have come out and told us what is going on; if nothing elso to reassure people,” the DISY deputy said. “We shouldn’t be chasing them.
“Breast cancer sufferers need the drug every month; some have been delayed for up to two weeks.”
Health Minister Christos Patsalides yesterday told the Cyprus Mail his ministry was trying to find solutions to the matter. “You understand, I have hundreds of issues to resolve; we are in and out of meetings, and this is one issue that we are examining,” he said.
