State newspaper says currency crisis following sanctions against banks has led to struggle to find milk for babies with allergies
If you are inIranand your child needs powdered milk because of an allergy, then you are in serious trouble. As sanctions take their toll on imports, a serious shortage of the product in the Iranian market is putting the lives of many babies at risk.
The economic measures against the Islamic republic might be targeting the country's nuclear programme but they have already had a great impact on the lives of ordinary people, especially with their effects on Iranian pharmacies.
In recent weeks, Iranians have complained about the soaring price of the baby milk, which has nearly doubled from some 60,000 rials to almost 120,000 rials a tin.
Domestically-made baby milk is reported to be abundant in the market while diet milk, or that suitable for children with allergies, which are imported from outside, are scarce.
The government has resorted to rationing, according to the website of the nation-wide state newspaperHamshahri, which blamed the shortage on the crisis raging over the country's currency. The rialwas sent into a tailspin last month, dropping to all-time lows.
Punitive measures against Iranian banks, which have cut them off from the outside world, and the trade sanctions have hindered the imports of many products that are not on the blacklist, such as foreign-made medicines.
According to Hamshahri, Mohammad Kazem Pour-Kazemi, the deputy head of Iran's society of pharmacists, said: "Unfortunately the distribution of diet milk is in an undesirable situation ... Despite the increase in prices, people have problems with finding them."
Saeed Jamal-Vaghefi, another official with the society, said: "Like any other product affected by the currency market, baby milk is scarce."
Speaking to the BBC's Persian service,an Iranian mother saidthat her daughter was taken to hospital because she couldn't find baby milk. She said: "My daughter had diarrhoea and we had to find a special milk. We looked for it in all pharmacies but they had run out of it."
Another mother told the BBC: "Baby milk is vital for my child. The officials are saying that it doesn't exist in the market any more, pharmacies say they don't have it. What should I do when my child is crying out of hunger?"
In mid-October, a leading Iranian medical charity warned that western sanctionswere hitting the imports of medicines and hospital equipment, putting millions of lives at risk. Patients suffering from diseases such as haemophilia, multiple sclerosis and cancer are believed to be affected.
Earlier this month, the New York Timespublished a detailed reporton how sanctions were taking an unexpected toll on medical imports, including medicines such as Herceptin which is made in the US. Among the other medicines said to be scarce in Iranian pharmacies these days is the tetanus vaccine.
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
