The difficulties obtaining insulin, testing strips and medicines are not unique to the Sudanese hospital we reported about in our last issue.
The stock of injections for diabetes patients has been exhausted in the Landikotal District Hospital in the Khyber tribal district of Pakistan.
Hospital sources reported in the local press have claimed many people with diabetes from mostly low, or no income, families, turn up each day hoping to receive a free insulin dose.
It is believed some patients have not had any insulin for a month and simply cannot afford to purchase insulin injections from private medical stores because of their cost.
Hospital managers claim they are underfunded, unlike some larger and higher category establishments in Pakistan, and after meeting salaries and paying for utility services they have a budget of just Rs4 million ($25,200) for medicines.
Advocacy Action: If this isn’t as great a problem in your country, could you help by raising the plight of people with diabetes in poorer parts of the world?