Houthi health officials in Yemen announced on Friday that expired doses of cancer treatment have reached leukemia patients and killed 10 children in the capital.
Officials said about 50 children had received an expired dose of methotrexate chemotherapy treatment that originated in India. The children were between the ages of three and 15 and died at Sanaa’s Kuwait Hospital after being injected with the drug, which was smuggled into the capital.
One child’s family said their son felt pain and cramps after receiving the treatment, then died five days later.
“The worst thing is that the hospital administration tried to hide the truth from us,” said the boy’s father, who asked not to be named for his and his family’s safety.
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The capital currently remains under Houthis control, with Iranian-backed Houthi forces taking command of the area in 2014 as part of a major offensive. Iran continues to support the Houthis, a major sticking point for critics of US-led efforts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the nuclear deal with Iran.
FILE: A dispensing pharmacist prepares drugs for chemotherapy treatment in a sterile room at the Antoine-Lacassagne Cancer Center in Nice, October 18, 2012.
(Reuters / Eric Gaillard)
“This underscores the hypocrisy of the Tehran regime, which receives billions of dollars that it relocates to its various terrorist projects around the world and to grow its nuclear weapons program with additional centrifuges and uranium enrichment but never had any respect for human rights or providing adequate medical care and medicine, “Lisa Daftari, Middle East expert and chief editor of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital.
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, during his speech to the UN General Assembly in September, insisted that his government stood up for “justice” and would “fight injustice in all its forms”.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shows the photo of General Kasim Soleimani
(Peter Aitken for Fox News Digital)
“All of humanity’s hopes and aspirations are built on justice and have the ability to create such a framework of all-encompassing justice, which means the elimination of injustice,” Raisi said. “We are defenders of a struggle against injustice in all its forms, against humanity, against spirituality, against the Almighty, against the peoples of the world”.
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The war in Yemen has created a humanitarian crisis, blocking the nation’s citizens without access to basic resources, such as food and medicine. Lack of access has led to a thriving smuggling network in both Houthis-controlled and Saudi-controlled areas.
Houthi movement leader Abdul-Malik Badruddin al-Houthi addresses a demonstration to mark Prophet Muhammad’s birthday via a television screen in Sanaa, Yemen, October 8, 2022.
Houthi officials have tried to manage the shortage by working with traffickers to acquire expired drugs, which several doctors in Sanaa say will further limit access to safe treatment.
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The Houthi health ministry said it had opened an investigation into the incident. In his statement, he blamed Saudi coalition forces of death for causing a lack of available medicines in Houthis-controlled areas.
Saudi Arabia has contributed billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Yemen since 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
