Haiti: Gangs Keep Pharmaceutical Sector in Check

April 4, 2024 Hour: 3:09 pm

Official sources said Thursday that systematic attacks by gangs are keeping Haiti’s pharmaceutical sector in check, plunged into a shortage crisis that is affecting the national health system.

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The president of the Haitian Pharmacists Association, Pierre Hugues, explained that the Caribbean country depends on around 70 percent of imports of this type of product.

Now the ports and airports are closed or dysfunctional due to constant incursions by criminal gangs, a fact that will prevent thousands of patients from continuing their treatment and the entire health sector will suffer the consequences of the lack of supplies and medicines, Hugues said.

“Of the 216 laboratories that officially supply pharmacies in Haiti, only three are located in the country, the other 213 are abroad. If they do not find a way to send medicines to Haiti, the agencies will not be able to supply the pharmacies,” he said.

I allocated $12 million from @UNCERF to address the dire situation in #Haiti.

Unending gang violence has displaced 50,000 people, pushed 5 million into acute hunger and weakened an already fragile health system.

These funds will enable aid partners to reach the hardest-hit. pic.twitter.com/MlGr2OD461

— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief)
April 4, 2024

Local laboratories – according to Le Nouvelliste newspaper – cover 25 to 30 percent of national needs, and one of them is inactive due to insecurity, and the other two are operating below their maximum capacity.

Hugues deplored the burning of more than a dozen pharmacies in Port-au-Prince by gangs in recent days.