Photo: Deposit Photos

By KELIN DILLON

In Mexico, vital oncological drugs necessary to fight children’s cancer did not arrive over the weekend as promised by the Mexican government, revealed the Association of Parents with Sick Children in a letter.

Authorities assured the parents on Wednesday, June 23, that the medications would arrive by Saturday, June 26, but the day came and went without any of the expected shipments.

“Officials representing the government of Mexico promised that as of this Saturday, medicine would arrive from South Korea, for immediate distribution in the institutions where it is needed and where shortages have been reported,” read the letter.

“We regret to report that despite the promises from the president last week, and those made at the time by Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer Varela and Secretary of the Interior Olga Sánchez Cordero, and even more recently by representatives of the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (Insabi), to this date no medicine has reached any of the hospitals where it is needed,” continued the Association of Parents with Sick Children. “And we have no news about it either from the officials who made this commitment to us.”

Drugs like cyclophosphamide are necessary to help slow or completely stop cancer cells from spreading. The missing pharmaceuticals pose a life-or-death situation, as children who are battling leukemia and do not take their medications regularly could die within only a matter of days.

Mexico’s government has yet to issue a public response to the rightfully concerned parents.