Yusef Jalali Press TV, Tehran Desferal; Jadenu; these words sound meaningless to ordinary people, but to every Thalassemia patient, they are life-savers. They are the drugs that chronically-transfused patients use to remove excess iron from their bodies; otherwise, they would die.

According to experts in this conference in Tehran, Iran needs to import 17 million doses of these two drugs to supply its thalassemia patients.

But only two million doses make their way into the country.

The problem is US sanctions.

According to Iran’s Thalassemia society, since the US re-imposed sanctions against Iran in 2018, 187 thalassemia patients have lost their lives simply because the bans denied them access to life-saving medicine.

Thalassemia patients are not the only victims of US sanctions.

People with EB, which is a sever skin condition are also faced with drug shortage.

Hadi is among the 800 EB patients in Iran, to whom sanction is an unending nightmare.

US sanctions do not directly target Iran’s medical sector, but the banking sanctions make it impossible for Iran to pay for any medical item it would buy from foreign firms.

World leaders have time and again called on Washington to exempt humanitarian supplies from the list of its anti-Iran sanctions; but to no avail.

Iranian Human Rights officials say US’s rights violation against Iranians has been kept under the rug for decades.

The bitter reality they say has come to light during the coronavirus pandemic, when American officials continued the ban against Iran