Drug shortage threatens patients with "epilepsy" in Iran

A family member of Dariush, director of the Iranian Society of Epilepsy, warned about worsening the crisis among the one million epilepsy patients in the country because of the absence of certain drugs to treat their disease.

According to a report published by the radio station "Zaman", "The drugs against epilepsy are very fateful, because patients can not support any epileptic seizure before one hour".

"In addition to the shortage of drugs for epilepsy, pharmacies and treatment centers are experiencing a shortage of epileptics," he said. "The process of securing all imported and domestically produced medicines is facing unprecedented difficulties in the current period."

He stressed that "changing the type of drug in patients quickly is not possible and that, in this case, it requires several months of patient's resulting disorders".

"The rate of people with epilepsy in Iran is estimated at 3 to 5% of the total population," he said.

Iran is experiencing a serious shortage of drugs due to the economic crisis in the country. The media reports that some traders and pharmacies monopolize certain types of drugs in order to sell them in real terms in a context of currency devaluation crisis.