Minister for Health and Population Pradeep Poudel has decided to provide free of cost a very expensive medicine used in the treatment of rare paralysis in Nepal.
Minister Poudel said that medicines received with US assistance will be distributed free of charge through federal and provincial hospitals to treat and save lives from paralysis, which kills approximately 800 people every year.
“Although it is treatable, many people are losing their lives because the medicine is rare and expensive,” he said at a program organized in Pokhara. “To prevent this, the government is going to make arrangements to obtain and provide the medicine.”
The ministry’s report states that the number of deaths has increased due to lack of access to medication for people with high blood pressure and heart problems who are at risk of stroke.
Doctors say that a single dose of a medicine called thrombolytic drugs can successfully cure paralysis, which is killing many people. The price of a single dose of the medicine in Nepal is approximately 138,000. Since many people are dying due to lack of access to the medicine, the ministry has taken the initiative to obtain and make this medicine easily available, according to Minister Poudel’s secretariat.