The Guardian: U.S. attack on WHO ‘hindering morphine drive in poor countries’
“[A report] on the World Health Organization (WHO) by U.S. politicians accusing it of being corrupted by drug companies is making it even more difficult to get morphine to millions of people dying in acute pain in poor countries, say experts in the field. Representatives of the hospice and palliative care community said they were stunned by the Congress members’ report, which they said made false accusations and would affect people suffering in countries where almost no opioids were available. … The report by the Democratic congresswoman Katherine Clark and the Republican congressman Hal Rogers, published in May, has undermined efforts to encourage governments to buy generic morphine or other appropriate opioids and doctors to prescribe them, dealing a severe blow to the struggle to help people dying in acute pain from cancer, AIDS, injuries, and other conditions, the [International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHCP)] says…” (Boseley, 9/18).