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Half the drugs donated for Bosnia war were unusable
Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Reuters
BOSTON (December 17, 1997 6:00 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - At least
half of the drugs donated during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina were
unusable and there is evidence the relief effort may have been used to
dump outdated supplies, according to a study published in Thursday's New
England Journal of Medicine.
The cost of disposing of an estimated 17,000 tons of the useless medical
supplies now falls on the World Health Organization, which plans to
build incinerator plants for that purpose, the study's authors
concluded.
They also said the companies that donated the medicines have probably
received tax deductions for their worthless contributions.
Dr. Patrick Berckmans and other researchers from the European
Association for Health and Development in Brussels and the European
Institute of Oncology in Milan used a variety of sources to track the
medical supplies that entered Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and the
middle of 1996.
They found that out of the 27,800 to 34,800 tons of drugs and medical
materials donated, between 13,900 and 20,900 tons were useless or
unusable.
Drugs whose shelf life had expired by the time they arrived, drugs with
unreadable labels, and medicines spoiled during transportation or
storage were commonly sent to the war-torn region. Other medicines were
damaged during the shelling of warehouses.
Some donations included army medical supplies from World War II and
supplies of a drug to treat leprosy, "a disease not found in the former
Yugoslavia," researchers said.
"For each ton of inappropriate drugs donated, the donor avoids
destruction costs of $2,000, putting the recipients in the embarrassing
position of having to destroy these quantities at a more or less
equivalent cost, provided that adequate incineration facilities are
available," the researchers concluded in an opinion column.
"Thus, 17,000 metric tons of inappropriate drugs may save donors $25.5
million (after the deduction of $500 per ton for the cost of
transportation to Bosnia and Herzegovina) and cost the recipient country
$34 million," they said. "Donors may also benefit from substantial tax
deductions, because their donations are considered 'humanitarian
gifts."'
Other studies, focusing on aid sent to people affected by earthquakes in
Armenia and Mexico, to the former Soviet Union, and to Africa during the
food crisis, have documented similar trends, Berckmans and his
colleagues said.
The researchers fault the World Health Organization, in part, for not
providing better coordination for collecting and dispensing medical
supplies during a relief effort. Part of the job, they said would
include "promptly denouncing inappropriate donations."
The New England Journal of Medicine article does not identify the source
of any of the donations regarded by the authors as inappropriate.
The researchers also call for a system that allows companies to get a
tax credit only when the donation has been deemed by local health
ministries to be useful and "acceptable for humanitarian assistance."
"Punitive fines and other sanctions should be directed at companies or
institutions that dump drugs," they concluded. "Among other things, the
financial burden of destroying unusable donated drugs or eventually
returning them to their country of origin should be placed on the
donor."
By GENE EMERY, Reuters
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