Medical donations go to waste

Gaza Since the war erupted in Gaza about six months ago, many countries started sending medical aid to the coastal enclave due to the severe shortage of medicines and equipment in hospitals.

The Gaza Strip is, however, suffering from a tightened siege since Hamas took control in June 2006.

Unfortunately, therefore, many of the medicine shipments are stranded at the borders for weeks or months waiting to get the green light to pass. Many of these medicines were spoiled before reaching Gaza, because of the poor storage facilities. In addition, some of the medicines are nearing their expiration dates.

"Around 22 per cent of [medicine is] rotten and we couldn't get any benefit out of it," said Dr Hassan Khalaf, the deputy minister of health in the Gaza government.

"During and after the Israeli war on Gaza we have received a lot of donations and medical aid from our friends and brothers in the Arab and Islamic world and also from the world community. Most of these donations were classified as primary first-level medicine," Khalaf said.

"It took a long time to isolate and classify these medicines and we didn't recognise that they were expired," he added.

The health ministry doesn't have the equipment to dispose of the expired medicines, which makes the medicine a big problem, not a solution to the health crisis.