Washington, Oct 13 (AP) Nearly 26 million people aroundthe world die each year with serious suffering in part becauseof a huge gap in pain relief: The US may be awash in opioidpainkillers, but they're rare or unavailable in dozens of poorcountries, says a new report.
The challenge is to improve palliative care in low-incomecountries while avoiding mistakes that led to the U.S.
addiction crisis.
The report to be published in The Lancet says one key isusing off-patent morphine that costs pennies a dose notprofitable for drug companies that push pricier, more powerfulopioids in rich countries, but critical to easing a healthemergency.
In some places, even children dying of cancer or childrenin treatment for cancer can't get pain relief, said Universityof Miami professor Felicia Knaul. She co-chaired a Lancet-appointed international commission that spent three yearsstudying the disparity and what she calls "the moralobligation" to help.
"This report finally gives voice to the suffering and aroadmap to governments," Knaul said.
Of the few hundred tons of morphine and equivalentopioids distributed worldwide, less than 4 per cent goes tolow- and middle-income countries, the researchers reported.
How much is needed? The Lancet Commission provided thefirst global estimates of the need for palliative care,defined as "serious health-related suffering" from certainlife-threatening conditions, including cancer, HIV and trauma.
Some 2.5 million children are among the annual count ofnearly 26 million who die without adequate relief, the teamcalculated.
Another 35.5 million people a year have serious pain andsuffering from those conditions but aren't dying, and mostlive in low- or middle- income countries.
The world's poorest countries have access to enoughmorphine to meet less than 2 per cent of their palliative careneeds, the report found. India fares little better, at 4 percent; China meets 16 percent of its need, and Mexico 36 percent.
The 2010 earthquake in Haiti highlighted the scarcity, asdoctors lacked opioids for people who were severely injured orneeded surgery, the commission noted.
Beyond painkillers, the panel urged health systems tomake available an "essential package" of palliative careservices that also includes medications to ease breathingproblems, muscle spasms, complications of heart or liverfailure, and depression and psychological suffering.
The list also includes practical equipment like pressuresore-reducing mattresses, adult diapers and a lock box for anyneeded morphine.
The Lancet panel looked to lessons from the US opioidcrisis, and from Western Europe, which has avoided similarabuse thanks to strict opioid monitoring and to universalhealth coverage for non-opioid treatments for chronic pain,said report co-author Dr Lukas Radbruch, a palliative carespecialist at Germany's University of Bonn.(AP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.