A group of parents of children with cancer protested at Terminal 1 of the Mexico City International Airport on Monday, January 20, against the lack of essential medication at the Moctezuma Pediatric Hospital and the Ixtapaluca High Specialty Regional Hospital. These institutions receive patients from different regions such as the State of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.
Omar Hernández, spokesperson for the collective and president of the Healthy Childhood Foundation Mexico A.C., expressed concern about the medication shortage that could repeat itself as it did five years ago. Although reports focus on these two hospitals, Hernández indicated that other regions are also starting to face similar issues.
The shortage is attributed to delays in the acquisition of medications under a new purchasing scheme implemented by the government. The collective demands effective solutions that benefit all patients, highlighting that the priority must be to ensure access to necessary treatments for children with cancer.
The group of protesters warned about the uncertainty experienced by affected families and the urgency for immediate responses from authorities to avoid putting the lives of minors at risk. The shortage of six essential medications for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas, and other types of childhood cancer is highlighted, including Doxorubicin, L-asparaginase, Dexamethasone, Mercaptopurine, Prednisone, and Cytarabine.
The parents demanded proper planning to ensure timely distribution of the medications and called for structural solutions from health authorities to prevent situations like this from happening in the future.
