2 | 26/01/2021 – 13:39 (GMT-4)
Cuban health authorities have recommended that the population resort to natural medicine to make up for the lack of medicines on the island, according to the official El Guerrillero press.
The head of the Provincial Department of Medicines and New Technologies, Odalys Lorenzo Morejón, “insisted on the use of natural and traditional medicine (NTM) as an alternative to various treatments and with great acceptance among the population,” the note reads.
In Cuba there is a general shortage of medicines due to the deep economic crisis the country is going through.
According to the official, “the most deficient pharmacological groups are oral antibiotics, analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs, antihistamines and anxiolytics”, which include popular drugs such as Dipiron, chlordiazepoxide and antibiotics such as amoxicillin, among many others.
Carlos Callava Couret, an official of the Master of Science and NTM program at the Provincial Health Directorate, told the Pinar del Rio community that plant protection products such as linden and passionflower syrups can be used “as an alternative to the lack of anxiolytics.”
Callava Couret added that oregano and aloe are able to prevent “respiratory infections”; and that “extracts of red mangroves, plantain, romerillo, caña santa and aloe” can serve as an immunomodulator and cure.
Regarding the tinctures, the official mentioned that garlic and holy cane can reduce high blood pressure. While guava is antiseptic and antidiarrheal.
He also stressed the use of honey in combination with passion flower, ginger and lemon balm propolis. As traditional Chinese medicine suggests (“acupuncture, moxas, cupping, microsystems and catgut seeding”) as an alternative to the drug crisis.
However, green medicine is also subject to the current shortage in Cuba, as the note itself clarifies that “many of these medicines are not available”.
Lack of drugs has been one of the worst problems in Cuba in recent years. People have turned to social media to help them buy medicines in small quantities, while the state has lost production capacity, gives priority to exports and is not the first time it recommends natural medicine as a solution to the crisis.
“The basic table of medicines has been missing, for several months, some products that are extremely requested and necessary for the population,” the official press said.
Recently, in Holguín, authorities reported the circulation of a counterfeit drug after several patients arrived at medical institutions with side effects.
According to the authorities, it was a “Chlordiasis Poxide” 10 mg tablet, which did not correspond to the authorized and distributed Cuban Chordordepepoxide of 10 mg.
This medicine is one of the most requested among the population of the island to calm the anxiety involved in facing the daily life in the country. At the same time, it is one of the rarest.
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