Ten leukaemia patients have lost their lives after obtaining smuggled medications in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, while nine others are in serious condition.
This was announced by the Houthi-controlled health authorities on Friday, who also said that an investigation into the unfortunate incident will be opened.
According to AFP, hospitals in Yemen’s war-torn country frequently use illegal medications since there is a severe lack of funding, supplies, and medical equipment due to the paralysis of more than half of Yemen’s medical institutions as a result of the civil war.
The health ministry of the Houthi rebels reported that ten leukaemia patients had passed away at a hospital in Kuwait; they were among 19 other patients who had the disease and were between the ages of three and fifteen.
It said that the drug had been smuggled into the nation and claimed that “bacterial contamination” had been found in the shots given to the kids.
Another child was described as being in “very critical condition.”
In 2014, the Houthi rebels seized a sizable portion of northern Yemen and drove the Saudi-supported Yemeni government out of Sanaa, igniting a civil war that has raged on ever since in the Arab nation.
Tens of thousands of people have died as a result of the war, four million people have been displaced, and the Arab nation is on the verge of hunger.