2 | 26/01/2021 – 13:39 pm (GMT-4)
According to official media El Guerrillero, Cuban health authorities have recommended that the population resort to natural medicine to make up for the lack of medicines on the island.
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 wide acceptance among the population,” the note states.
In Cuba there is a general lack 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-inflammatories, antihistamines and anxiolytics,” including popular drugs such as dipyrone, chlordiazepoxide and antibiotics such as amoxicillin and many others.
Carlos Callava Couret, the Master of Science and NTM Program Officer at the Provincial Health Directorate, told the Pinar del Rio community that phytopharmaceuticals such as lime and passion flower syrups can be used “as an alternative to anxiolytic deficiency.”
Callava Couret added that oregano and aloe can prevent “respiratory infections”; and that “extracts of red mangrove, plantain, romerillo, caña santa and aloe” can serve as immunomodulator and cure.
Regarding tinctures, the official said those from garlic and sacred sugar cane can lower high blood pressure. While that of guava is antiseptic and against diarrhea.
He also emphasized the use of honey in combination with passion flower, ginger and melito propolis. As suggested by traditional Chinese medicine (“acupuncture, moxas, cupping, microsystems and catgut seeding”) as an alternative to the drug crisis.
However, green drugs are also subject to the current shortage in Cuba, as the note itself makes it clear that “many of these drugs are not available”.
The lack of medicines was one of the most serious problems in Cuba last year. People have turned to social networks to help them get drugs that are scarce, while the state has lost manufacturing capacity, prioritizing exports, and it’s not the first time it has recommended natural medicine as a solution to the crisis.
“The basic table of medicines has been missing some highly demanded and necessary products for the population for several months,” said the official media.
Authorities in Holguín recently reported that a fake drug was in circulation after several patients with side effects arrived at medical institutions.
According to authorities, the 10 mg “Clordiaze Poxide” was the tablet which did not correspond to the authorized and distributed Cuban 10 mg chlordiazepoxide.
This drug is one of the most in-demand among the island population to ease the anxiety associated with everyday life in the country. At the same time it is one of the rarest.
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