Int'l community concerned over shortages of medicines in Nepal

Nepal-based international agencies today expressed concerns over shortages of essential and lifesaving medicines at health care facilities due to blockade of a key trade point at the Indo-Nepal border amid protests by Madhesis against the new Constitution.
The statement issued by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Department for International Development (DFID), German Development Cooperation (GDC, GIZ, KfW), and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) states that the present crisis is grave and if it continues the effects will exacerbate.
Similarly, the UNICEF had warned that more than three million children below the age of 5 in Nepal may face death and disease if the shortage of food, medicines, vaccines and fuel to the earthquake-hit nation is not met before winter.

The Madhesi people have imposed a trade blockade in the Terai region of Nepal in protest against the country's new constitution passed on September 20, in which they claim to have been left out.
The blockade which Nepal says was imposed by India has caused an acute shortage of fuel and cooking gas and also affected hospitals as they are running short on supplies, including medicines.
India accounts for about 60 per cent of the total imports in Nepal. The threat to life looms large over 125,000 "newborns expected in Nepal in the next two months" if the trade blockade does not end any time soon.

"The plight children and their families are facing in the country has been worsening by the day, and will deteriorate further in the winter months. Children need to be protected from disease, cold and hunger," said Karin Hulshof, Regional Director of UNICEF for South Asia.

Meanwhile, Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) today agreed to provide USD 15 million (Rs 1,570 million) grant assistance from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) to Nepal for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihood Restoration for Earthquake Affected Communities Project.
Lok Darshan Regmi, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of Nepal Residence Mission of ADB signed the agreement in the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the government of Nepal and ADB.

"The objective of the project is to help restore the disrupted livelihoods and schooling in the poor and severely earthquake-affected communities, and strengthen their resilience against future disasters", a statement said.