Dermatologists say they are unable to treat their patients’ scabies amid outbreaks of highly infectious skin disease.
According to the Malta Dermatological and Venereal Association (MADV), the medicine has been out of stock for the past eight weeks.
Nothing to deal with them except empty promises– Malta Dermatology and Venereal Society
Between January and March, 64 cases of scabies, infested with small mites on the skin, were documented.
“We cannot treat patients. Nothing but empty promises will treat patients,” said a MADV spokesperson.
Scabies is spread through normal human contact, and treatments include drugs that can be applied to the skin or taken orally.
Permethrin cream and ivermectin pills, like many other drugs, have been inconsistent over the past eight weeks due to a lack of adequate procurement policies in drug inventory, MADV claims.
By policy, I mean drugs that were supplied on demand in the past
Rather than overstock medicines in preparation for an outbreak, the current policy is to supply medicines based on what was needed in the previous month, the association said.
In the event of an epidemic, the government will procure the drugs needed to solve the problem at hand.
However, this has led to scabies outbreaks with no end in sight with no inventory.
A MADV spokesperson said this is not the first time such shortages have occurred and drug shortages are a recurring problem.
“I’ve never dragged this long without medication,” the spokesperson said.
“This shortage of supply at this critical level does not exist in any other European country,” MADV said, noting that the problem was procurement, not shortage of supply.
At the beginning of April, MADV and MAPHM released a joint statement on the regional shortage of medicines for treating scabies.
At the time, a Ministry of Health spokesperson said a new stock of scabies treatment drugs had been received and would be distributed within a week.
A MADV spokesperson said, “We are in trouble.” This is because, despite the ministry’s promises, they have yet to see a cure for skin infections.
“This is out of control,” they said. They have not been contacted,” they said, emphasizing that it is the doctors who are facing the suffering patients.
Times of Malta I sent a question to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
What is scabies?
• Scabies is an itchy skin condition caused by burrowing mites.
• Although it is less severe, it is contagious and requires treatment.
• Can be spread from person to person through skin-to-skin contact.
• This infection is most common in young and old people.
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