BAGHDAD, June 26 (IslamOnline.net) - Pinched with 13 years of crippling sanctions and a state of chaos and anarchy sparked off by the Anglo-American occupation, Iraqis are up against acute drug shortage and lack of a disciplined import system to provide necessary medicine.

With almost 85 percent of the drug stockpiled in Iraqi government hospitals stolen during the free-for-all looting waves that followed hot on the fall of Baghdad, Iraqi patients are wholly dependent on medical aid sent by neighboring countries.

But, even that is not enough, Marwan Al-Ani, an Iraqi doctor, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, June 26, asserting that “drugs sent to the country as part of humanitarian relief supplies fall short of the people’s needs.

“A man who should take doses for five days is now given doses for only two days,” he regretted.

The Iraqi doctor appealed to organizations in and outside Iraq “to provide us with medicine” to meet the needs of the spiraling number of Iraqi patients.

“We are expecting to run out of drug supplies in one month time, and we do not know what to do next,” said the Iraqi doctor.

Ironically, most of the drugs received in aid are of the same kind, in spite of the spread of variant diseases in the country, he said.

“Every time, we get the same drugs for particular diseases, dampening our efforts to meet the needs of all patients inflicted with different diseases,” Doctor Ani said.

“Furthermore, medical aid are brought in samples, with only two bills in a whole pack,” said Samar Ahmed al-Saher, another physician.

“We can not complain and there is no official to develop an appropriate import process making all drugs needed available,” she added.

Saher made it clear that medical standards were taking a nose-dive since the occupation, further enhancing Iraqis’ call for the U.S. and British occupation forces to pack up and leave.

“We talked to the Americans, but they only argued that their responsibility was restricted to protecting hospitals,” said the Iraqi physician.

“They told us it is up to the U.S. administration to decide on the issue of drug supplies,” she added, asserting that the Americans are living Iraqis drug-less.

Most of the pharmacies in Iraqi hospitals include medicine shipped by Islamic countries and relief organizations which so far proved no substitute to a national government to run the medical sector.

“There is a need for a central administration, as drugs should be provided by ministerial bodies in a stable government,” said Ali Jawad Tamimi, deputy director of the Arab Child Hospital.

“The lack of a central authority overshadowed an already-deteriorating health care sector inflicted by 13 years of embargo and weeks of pillaging,” he said.

“There have been increasing numbers of patients and chronic diseases, let alone the lack of basic services,” Tamimi stressed.

Aggravating the deteriorating health conditions are mountains of uncollected garbage across Iraqi towns.