By Muhammad al-Qadi
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – For weeks, Qusai Ibrahim has been scouring drugstores across Qamishli, a city in Northeast Syria, in a desperate search for kidney medication, which has become increasingly scarce in local pharmacies.
Day after day, Ibrahim spends hours moving from one pharmacy to another, looking for treatments that have been out of stock for months.
Patients’ suffering
Ibrahim is puzzled by the shortage of medications for chronic illnesses, expressing frustration that no one seems to know why these essential drugs have disappeared from the market. “No one knows the real reason behind the shortage,” he said.
A local pharmacist mentioned that supplies might return within a month or more, but there is no definite timeline.
The pharmacist also voiced concern over the impact on patients, particularly those who rely on daily medication for chronic conditions. “If this shortage continues, the consequences could be catastrophic,” he warned.
Nayef Abdulatif, a resident of Qamishli’s countryside, is facing the same struggle. He explained that searching for medicines has become a relentless task, with even alternative treatments now difficult to find.
“We visit several pharmacies, but the medicines are simply not there,” Abdulatif said.
He added that patients, despite the rising cost of medications, are left with no choice but to buy them if they become available.
“Even if they’re expensive, people need to take them, but the reality is that these drugs are increasingly missing from pharmacies.”
Chronic diseases’ medications
Nasser Brik, a pharmacist in Qamishli, revealed that the city has been facing a severe shortage of medications for chronic illnesses for over four months.
He explained that previously, patients could find the drugs they needed without relying on alternatives. Now, due to the ongoing shortage, even substitute medications have disappeared from pharmacy shelves.
Brik warned that if the supply of medications does not resume within the next 15 days, patients who depend on continuous treatment could face a serious crisis.
Among the missing drugs are essential treatments for diabetes, hypertension, heart conditions, and eye drops, with most chronic illness medications largely unavailable.
He further noted that importing medicines from other regions is not an option, as supplies are limited to those entering through official crossings from government-controlled areas.
Reasons behind crisis
The import of foreign medications is not feasible, as they often arrive through illegal channels and fail to meet the population’s needs, explained Kamiran Baik, head of the Pharmacists’ Union in Qamishli, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
As a result, the region primarily relies on supplies from Damascus, Aleppo, and other government-controlled areas.
Baik attributed the shortage to the closure of crossings and restrictions on sending medications to AANES-run areas. “The health minister has blocked the shipment of drugs to Northeast Syria,” he said.
Baik noted that since February 2024, the availability of medications has gradually declined, with around 30 percent of essential drugs now missing.
“While we have faced shortages before, this time is different—the duration is longer, and we are losing access to chronic illness medications,” he added.
He explained that although there is a reserve stock of general medications sufficient for a year, the region is running critically low on drugs for chronic illnesses due to the high demand from patients who require them daily.
To explore alternative solutions, Baik mentioned that they could potentially source medications from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) or turn to Indian-produced drugs. However, importing European medications remains challenging due to both high costs and the ongoing blockade.
Baik also indicated that efforts have been made to collaborate with organizations to establish pharmaceutical factories in the region. However, these organizations require guarantees before signing contracts—guarantees that are hard to secure given the repeated Turkish attacks on vital industrial and healthcare facilities.
A small shipment of medications began entering the region a week ago, Baik noted, but the quantities are limited, and it remains unclear which medications have arrived or if they will adequately meet patients’ needs.