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‘Don’t fall ill’: Sri Lanka doctors warn of drug shortage

Jeewanthi Fernando, a patient who underwent a renal transplant shows a carton of an essential medical drug used to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ at her residence in Moratumulla, a suburb in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 3, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Mudiyansege Chandrawathi, a cancer patient, is put onboard a lorry by her relatives as she prepares to leave back to her village after attending a medical clinic at the national cancer hospital in Maharagama, a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 3, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) People wait to receive medical drugs at a government run hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 6, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Jesmi Fatima shows a prescription given by doctors to undergo pathology tests that were already delayed due to lack of supplies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 3, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) A hospital worker carries a tray of medical drugs at a government run hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 6, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) People wait to receive medicine at a pharmacy in a government hospital for children in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 6, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Mudiyansege Chandrawathi, a cancer patient, drinks a beverage after attending a medical clinic at the national cancer hospital in Maharagama, a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 3, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Mohammed Feroze, a kidney patient, puts on his shirt as he waits to buy medicine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 3, 2022. Doctors in Sri Lanka are urging their patients not to fall ill or get into accidents as the country's economic crisis leaves its trusted health system without medicines and other vital supplies. Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine has also run scarce. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Hasini Wasana, a renal transplant patient, sits in her home in Negombo, outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 19, 2022. Wasana had been diagnosed with a kidney ailment as a toddler and underwent a transplant nine months ago. She has to take a tablet for lifetime, an immunosuppressant to stop her body from rejecting the transplanted kidney. The government has no dollars to import them and Wasana's family is dependent on donors because is too expensive in the private sector. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and its trusted health system is sinking because of an acute medicine shortage. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)