A | Colombo, Oct 11 (UNI) Since Sri Lanka announced in April that it will default on its foreign debt, its 22 million residents have lost access to most medicine and medical supplies, setting them on course for a humanitarian disaster, a report published on Tuesday said.
The report by ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was quoted as saying by The Island newspaper that unlike Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sri Lanka’s crisis grew slowly and has garnered few international headlines.
But Sri Lankans are suffering amid the harshest economic crisis the country has confronted since gaining independence in 1948, it said.
With the country’s foreign reserves depleted, the nationalized healthcare system cannot afford to import medicine and medical supplies in sufficient quantities, it said.
Sri Lanka relies on imports for about 85 per cent of its pharmaceutical needs and about 80 per cent of its medical supplies. The country imported $815 million in medicine in 2021, but by May had only about $25 million in foreign reserves to pay for imports of any kind.
Last week in Sri Lanka, Direct Relief staff participated in an extensive series of meetings with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and much of the country’s healthcare leadership while overseeing the arrival of what may be the largest donation of medicine to the country since the crisis began.
“For the next six months, they’re (Sri Lanka) expecting a catastrophic number of deaths,” said Chris Alleway, Direct Relief’s manager of emergency response and new initiatives, who led the Sri Lanka meetings.
The 3,500-bed National Hospital of Sri Lanka in Columbo, which usually has 1,300 medicines in stock, is now down to requesting only the 60 most essential medicines, the newspaper reported.
With anesthesia in short supply, most general surgeries in the country have ceased, including kidney transplants. Cancer patients have lost access to medications needed to fight the deadly disease. Diabetes patients must secure and bring their own glucose meters for blood sugar check-ups.
Many hospitals are stocked out of basic items like bandages and cotton balls. The stockouts are forcing rural clinics to close their doors and refer patients to larger facilities in urban areas, which also are overwhelmed by the flow of patients.
Due to a severe fuel shortage, the country’s fishing fleets cannot go far out to sea, slashing the supply of fish that is a significant source of protein in the country, including at its largest children’s hospital, it said.
Sri Lanka is also losing clinicians as they migrate to other countries with more opportunities, while its medical colleges see the number of applicants for medical education decline sharply.
Responding to the crisis spurred by Sri Lanka’s default in June of this year, Direct Relief has delivered eight humanitarian shipments totaling 27 tonnes and 16 million defined daily doses of donated medicine.
The largest shipment from Direct Relief to Sri Lanka -- 18 tonnes of medicine and medical supplies requested explicitly by Sri Lanka’s government -- arrived in recent weeks.
UNI MR。 AI摘要
国民党陈以信批赖清德当局在中联油脂案中监管失职，质疑报告有黑洞、近10个月豆油去向不明，要求官员下台负责并道歉。
台中地检署侦结起诉中联油脂案，国民党文传会主委陈以信18日表示，黑心厂商违法当然要办到底，但不是起诉厂商就能结案；中联要负刑事责任，赖清德当局更要负监管失职的行政责任与食安风暴的政治责任。
B | 陈以信批评，“检察官起诉黑心厂商，谁来究责失职‘政府’？”这场食安风暴闹到超过20万人走上凯道怒吼，结果到今天，等不到赖清德一句道歉，更没有一名官员下台负责；难道油出了问题都是厂商的错，行政单位监督失灵就完全没事？ 陈以信指出，更离谱的是，“食药署”自己公布的调查报告至今还留着一个巨大黑洞。报告指出，中联早在2025年6月初，就把巴西黄豆热损粒验收标准从0.5%放宽到5%，整整放宽10倍，调查小组更直指此举“间接提升BaP超标之风险”。但官方报告列出的巴西豆船批，却从2026年3月才开始。 陈以信质疑，“中间消失的近10个月呢？”放宽10倍标准后，中联到底进口多少巴西黄豆？做成多少油？有没有超标？卖给谁？流到哪里？有多少已经被民众吃下肚？还有没有没被查到的问题油品？还有没有更大的食安未爆弹？ 他批评，民进党当局借司法起诉把所有责任往厂商身上推，把自己的责任一笔勾销。20万人上凯道，换不到赖清德一句道歉，卓荣泰、卫福主管部门负责人石崇良、“食药署长”姜至刚、食安办主任许辅没有一个下台，现在连近10个月的巴西豆去哪里都说不清楚，到底“执政者”还要躲到什么时候？。
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