“without the political will to change, vulnerable people remain deprived of humane treatment and an end to life free of pain.”
This is the conclusion of the Channel 4 documentary, Senegal: Africa’s Drug Scandal that is due to be broadcast in the UK at 7:35pm on Friday 30th May 2014.
Internationally acclaimed Channel 4 reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy and director Daniel Bogado travel to Senegal to explore further what Human Rights Watch described as:
“Tens of thousands of patients in Senegal suffer[ing] from excruciating pain every year without relief”
The documentary looks at Senegal in a regional context exploring how patients are being deprived of morphine despite governments having the funds to purchase supplies.
Professor Claude Moreira from the children’s cancer unit in Dantec Hospital in Dakar tells the documentary that about the growing cancer burden the country is experiencing and the lack of morphine made available to medical professionals by government to give to patients.
The documentary reports that:
“There are tens of thousands of people in Senegal who need relief for severe pain. But the government only orders enough morphine to treat a few hundred patients a year.”
Guru-Murthy concludes the situation amounts to “needless cruelty”.
More information
- Read previews from the Radio Times and The Telegraph.
- Read Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s blog on the subject.
- Watch the programme live on Channel 4 online.
- Watch the programme for 30 days after broadcast on 4OD.
- Tweet comments during and after the show using the hashtag #unreportedworld
Leave a Reply