People affected by leprosy in Nigeria should be able to obtain vital medicines to treat the disease for the first time in a year of this weekend, said the World Health Organization.
The country, which reports more than 2000 new cases a year, exhausted deliveries in part as drugs were detained after the introduction of new provisions.
The WHO said he asked Nigeria to briefly cancel his new testing policy and expects medicines to arrive from India on Sunday.
Leprosy is treatable with a combination of various antibiotics, but if left untreated, patients' health can worsen with ulcers and nerve damage that causes deformities.
Treatment can last between six and 12 months.
But due to the lack of medication in Nigeria, patients were sent home from hospitals. Because drugs suppress the transmission, this increases the risk of spreading the disease.
Dr. Sammu Meliza, an expert on public health and a medical advisor at the Nigerian branch of the mission of leprosy, emphasized the urgent need for medication.
“We have thousands of new diagnosed patients with leprosy in different cities who are just waiting for this medicine,” he told the BBC.
“The faster we have (the drugs), the better, because at the moment these people are suffering, their transmission continues because they are not treated,” said Dr. Msheeliza.
Reuters news agency talks to a woman in a hospital in Nasarava, who said her condition had worsened a lot as she was unable to get caught up with the combination of drugs.
All the fingers of Awwal Musa were her toenails and her fingers dumped pus. “Last year, my wounds were healed, but now they are getting worse. The pain is worse,” Da Musa quoted.
Nerve damage can be irreversible.
Nigeria's drug organ has introduced new regulations on drugs aimed at dealing with the import of counterfeit and sub -centers.
In recent years, several medicines have been withdrawn for not meeting safety standards.
But the new measures have influenced the presence of decisive treatments, including those for leprosy.