Warriors and Survivors - 26

Children Cancer Stories by Rukh Yusuf - Blog # 26

I am Rukh Yusuf, Clinical Pharmacist, also specialized in Total Parenteral Nutrition and Bone Marrow Transplant. I have been working in Pediatric Oncology unit of a public hospital for several years. The mission of this blog is to bring to you the real-life stories of child patients suffering from cancer. Cancer is still a difficult disease to handle and treat. However, when it strikes the children, some so young that they cannot even speak, their agony is beyond expression and words. Let us pray especially for children suffering from cancer for early and complete remission. May Allah shower His Merciful Blessings upon them. Aameen.

 

Every child is unique in their own way, not only in appearance but also physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. Every child’s needs are different but all children need to be cared for, and it is the same globally. They are young innocent buds, and they should be looked after delicately.

 

Children are liked and loved by all generally due to their innocence and purity and its common that we just stop by them to talk or to play with them inescapably. I meet many children in routine, sometimes I want to talk to them and sometimes it’s hard to even look at them because of their suffering and illness.

 

Yesterday, I stopped by Yusra and started talking to her just by reflex. She is seven years old healthy-looking child with angelic smiling face. She looks cute even without hairs which she lost due to her treatment.  I started talking to her and her mother. She has shining intelligent eyes and very friendly nature. She is only daughter of her parents and has two male siblings; she is youngest one, several reasons to be an apple of her parent’s and every one’s eyes.

But apart from so many reasons to be unique, no one knows what the future holds for them, patience, gratitude or both.

 

She is known case of Pre B-ALL and resident of Sargodha. Her father was working in beverage Industry until start of her treatment. He lost his job because he had to take leaves frequently to travel to Lahore for the chemotherapy of his only blessing.

Yusra is under treatment for her cancer for three months. But to her bad luck, her treatment had to be stopped due to her fever. It ruled out after diagnostic tests that it was her fungal pneumonia that was the cause of her chronic fever.

She has been on Injection ‘amphotericin’ for fungal treatment for almost two months and the drug is not available freely being not registered since long.

“A very grave situation when your child’s cure is not available or hardly available in market.”

In Pakistan, among antifungals, only few options are registered and available as compared to other countries.

Among oral antifungals, only Fluconazole and Voriconazole are available and second one is hard to find these days in market.

Among parenteral or Intravenous antifungals, only injection Fluconazole is available, but it treats only limited fungal infections, including candidiasis and cryptococcal infections.

Injection ‘Amphotericin’ is broad spectrum antifungal, and it was registered and was freely available in Pakistan till 2015. Later it was discontinued due to some reason, since then patients are suffering.

Last year, some company realized the issue and managed to register the product and somehow manufactured one batch to facilitate the patients, patients were facilitated through donation by our philanthropist for few months but eventually the stock was consumed. Now next batch is awaited, and manufacturer has some serious reasons for the delay. 

Antifungals from “Echinocandin family” i.e Caspofungin, Micafungin and Anidulafungin have never been introduced and not registered here in Pakistan yet. 

About Yusra, she is still on antifungal treatment, her parents are trying to find her medicine from market on daily basis, but injection is hard to find and if available it costs too much to buy. When medicine is not there in market, hospital administration and philanthropists too cannot do anything. 

Children are our future, there must be efforts to save our precious future by all means. Medication and treatment facilities are among the basic necessities. This necessity must be available to all equally.

All necessary life saving medicines should be registered and made available freely for smooth treatment of every patient and children’s medicines must never be short or unavailable.

 

 

We all pray for recovery of Yusra and ease for her family.