Economic Sanctions Endanger Nuclear Medicine Services in Iran

TO THE EDITOR: The recent withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, followed by economic, trade, and financial sanctions against Iran, has had a deleterious effect on nuclear medicine, on the supply of both radiotracers and spare parts for nuclear medicine devices. Although medicine is apparently not included in the list of sanctions, medical companies find it very difficult to be able to do any transactions because of secondary sanctions, aviation and transportation embargoes, as well as financial restrictions. Payment for the drugs or instruments and shipment of the goods to and from Iran have turned to a lengthy, difficult and risky task.

The multidisciplinary network of Iranian nuclear medicine scientists, with members all around the world, would like to inform the medical community about these negative consequences of the current economic sanctions of the United States on the healthcare of the Iranian population.

The Iranian nuclear medicine services are confronted throughout the country with major difficulties in purchasing radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and therapeutic purposes.

We are concerned that, in addition, the domestically produced radiopharmaceuticals, which depend on raw materials from abroad, will undergo a dramatic shortage. We strongly believe that any medical shortage including restricted supply of radiopharmaceuticals seriously endangers the health of patients and restricts the basic universal human rights for health.

The exact effects of the sanctions on Iranian people cannot be quantified, but some authors reported the harmful effects of previous economic sanctions on healthcare (1,2). It should be emphasized that nuclear medicine is an indispensable part of the multidisciplinary care of patients, and the shortage of radiopharmaceuticals will have an increasing impact on the healthcare of the Iranian population.

We therefore request urgently the support of international and U.S. nuclear medicine associations and hope that they will join us in our plea to the U.S. administration to ascertain the supply of life-saving radiopharmaceuticals for Iranian patients. The network of Iranian nuclear medicine scientists urges the community to support protection of full nuclear medicine services in Iran.

• © 2019 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.