2026-07-18T10:46:17+00:00
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Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah
Persistent shortages of life-saving medicines and clotting
factor injections are putting hundreds of people with hemophilia in the
Kurdistan Region at growing risk, a patients’ advocacy group warned on
Saturday, urging authorities to restore supplies as soon as possible.
During a press conference, Adel Zaniyar, head of the
Kurdistan Hemophilia Patients Association, noted that more than 350 people with
hemophilia live in Al-Sulaymaniyah Province, while the number of patients
across Iraq exceeds 7,000. “Patients have struggled to obtain essential treatment
for months, with the shortages linked to delays in forming the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) and a lack of funding to purchase medicines and
clotting factor injections.”
Requiring between 30 and 40 injections every month, and a
single injection costs between $400 and $500, many patients cannot afford the
treatment they need, he said.
“Continued shortages could lead to severe bleeding and
life-threatening complications,” Zaniyar cautioned, adding that the
formation of a new KRG approving funding, and the Iraqi Health Ministry
allowing medicines supply directly through the country’s health system, would
help many patients.
Hemophilia is a rare inherited bleeding disorder caused by a
deficiency in one of the blood-clotting factors, leaving patients vulnerable to
prolonged bleeding after injuries as well as spontaneous bleeding in the
joints, muscles, and internal organs.
Read more: Iraq’s healthcare system nears collapse: Doctors leave, hospitals overflow