[hivaids-twg] FW: Stop Needless Suffering

[Vern Weitzel]

Subject: 	FW: Stop Needless Suffering
Date: 	Wed, 4 Mar 2009 08:44:28 +0700
From: 	Kimberly Green <Kim at fhi.org.vn>
To: 	<vern.weitzel at gmail.com>



Please post on HIV and Health listserves. Thanks, Kim

*From:* healthgap-bounces at critpath.org
[mailto:healthgap-bounces at critpath.org] *On Behalf Of *Diederik Lohman
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 03, 2009 2:51 PM
*To:* Public list for Health GAP notices and discussions
*Subject:* [HEALTHGAP] UN: Stop Needless Suffering



*UN: Stop Needless Suffering*

*/Summit/**/ on Drugs Should Address Obstacles to Pain Relief Medicine/*



(New York, March 3, 2009) – The UN General Assembly Special Session on
Drugs, starting March 11, 2009, should address the lack of access to
pain relief medicines in many countries, which leaves tens of millions
of people worldwide suffering from severe but treatable pain, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released today.



In the 47-page report, “‘Please, Don’t Make Us Suffer Anymore…’: Access
to Pain Treatment as a Human Right,” Human Rights Watch said that
countries could significantly improve access to pain medications by
addressing the causes of their poor availability. These often include
the failure to put in place functioning supply and distribution systems;
absence of government policies to ensure their availability;
insufficient instruction for healthcare workers; excessively strict
drug-control regulations; and fear of legal sanctions among healthcare
workers.



“Severe pain can easily be treated with inexpensive medications, so it
is inexcusable that millions of people have to live and die in agony,”
said Diederik Lohman, senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s health
and human rights division. “The UN drugs summit provides an opportunity
for governments to give real meaning to their commitment to end this
unnecessary suffering.”



In the report, Human Rights Watch noted that international law requires
states to make narcotic drugs available for the treatment of pain while
preventing abuse, but that the strong international focus on preventing
abuse of such drugs has led many countries to neglect that obligation.
The 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs states that these drugs are
“indispensible” for the relief of pain and suffering.



“The UN drug treaties envisaged a balance between preventing abuse and
making sure narcotic drugs are available for medical purposes,” said
Lohman. “In practice, many governments have implemented strict laws and
policies that target drug abuse and ignored their obligation to ensure
legitimate access to pain relief medicines.”



As a result, almost 50 years after the agreement was adopted, adequate
availability of narcotic drugs for pain treatment remains an unfulfilled
promise. In February 2009, the World Health Organization estimated that
tens of millions of people worldwide suffer from severe pain without
access to adequate treatment, including about 5.5 million terminal
cancer patients and 1 million end-stage AIDS patients.



At the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, on March 11 and 12
in Vienna, nations will set priorities for the coming 10 years of global
drug policy. Preliminary negotiations in advance of the meeting have
focused almost exclusively on preventing illicit use of controlled
substances while largely ignoring their poor availability for medical
purposes.



“The UN summit should set clear, measurable goals for improving access
to pain medications,” said Lohman. “Being ‘tough on drugs’ should not
mean that governments refuse to provide pain relief and ignore the
suffering of millions of people.”



*Selected quotes from the report:*



“For two days, I had agonizing pain in both the back and front of my
body. I thought I was going to die. The doctor said that there was no
need to medicate my pain, that it was just a hematoma and that the pain
would go away by itself. I was screaming all through the night.”

– A Kerala, India, man describing to Human Rights Watch on March 20,
2008, his stay in hospital immediately after a construction site
accident in which he sustained spinal cord trauma. His name is withheld
to protect his privacy.



“Cancer is killing us. Pain is killing me because for several days I
have been unable to find injectable morphine in any place. Please, Mr.
Secretary of Health, do not make us suffer any more”

– A classified ad placed in /El País/ newspaper in Cali, Colombia, on
September 12, 2008, by the mother of a woman with cervical cancer.



“Physicians are afraid of morphine… Doctors [in Kenya] are so used to
patients dying in pain…they think that this is how you must die. They
are suspicious if you don’t die this way – [and feel] that you died
prematurely.”

– Dr. John Weru of Nairobi, Kenya, a physician at a hospice, in an
interview with Human Rights Watch in June 2007.



* “‘Please, Don’t Make Us Suffer Anymore…’: Access to Pain Treatment as
a Human Right,” is available at:*

http://hrw.org/en/node/81080/

* *

*For more information, please contact:*

In New York, Diederik Lohman (English, Russian, Dutch): +1-212-216-1282;
or +1-914-439-4382 (mobile)

In New York, Joe Amon (English): +1-212-216-1286; or +1-917-519-8930
(mobile)

In New York, Rebecca Schleifer (English, Spanish): +1-212-216-1273; or
+1-646-331 0324 (mobile)

In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese):
+32-498-625786 (mobile)









--

Diederik Lohman

Senior Researcher

Health and Human Rights Division

*Human Rights Watch*

+1 212 216 1282 (t)

+1 212 736 1300 (f)

lohmand at hrw.org <mailto:lohmand at hrw.org>

Diederik_lohman (Skype)

www.hrw.org/doc/?t=health <http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=health>