“Most of our work is related to drug shortages, not the disease itself.” This is how a pulmonologist-tuberculologist, director of ESY at the Sotiria hospital and treasurer of the Hellenic Pulmonological Society, described yesterday. Charalambos Musk, a large shortage of essential anti-tuberculosis drugs experienced by medical professionals in the last year, to such an extent that, as he noted, “treatment of patients with tuberculosis has been unreliable for a very long time. There were periods when we did not have enough medicines even in Sotiria and a specialized clinic. Even now we are marginalized. I can’t imagine what could be true in small clinics in the countryside.”

The risks from this situation, on the one hand, relate to the patient with tuberculosis, and on the other hand, to his relatives, since he can pass the disease on to them. In addition, deficiencies lead to incorrect treatment and, probably, to the development of resistance of mycobacteria to them. Mr. Moschos explained the shortage of specific medicines, which he explained is an international phenomenon, limited interest in their availability because, according to him, “these are cheap medicines, they lost their patent for many years and concern a small number of patients” .

“Not fixed”

“Tuberculosis has not been eradicated. This has never been fixed. Its incidence decreased in the 1980s, but over the past two decades, the number of new cases has remained stable and, as a rule, underestimated,” Mr. Moskhos emphasized. In our country, 400-450 cases of tuberculosis are registered annually. three times, maybe five times,” he noted, adding: “If it’s five times, that means Greece is now a country with a medium incidence rate. And if so, a different strategy is required.”

These remarks were made at an event leading up to the 31st Panhellenic Pulmonology Conference starting tomorrow in Athens (Caravel Hotel, December 8-11). At the event, the President of the Hellenic Lung Society Stelios Loukidis and Board Members Nicholas Tsanakis, Paraskevi Katsaounou, Petros Bakakos, Eleftherios Zervas and Nicoleta Rovina presented the topics that will be transplantation, the development of lung cancer and the Living with COPD program, which is an online approach patients for exercise.