Health Ministry's Response to 'Death of 70 Dialysis Patients': 'Related to the Past'

The head of the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Health reacted to the confirmation of the death of 70 dialysis patients, writing on X network on Monday, November 14, that this incident was related to last year and that bringing it up now is 'to expedite legal proceedings.' This comes as the news of the death of seventy dialysis patients and 'lack of proper follow-up on this case' has sparked widespread reactions among social media users. In a statement released by one of the members of parliament regarding this issue, it was also mentioned that the matter pertains to the past, and the reason for bringing it up was that a request had been made again from the company responsible for drug production. Today, Hossein Kermanpour, as an official of the government of Medicalian, wrote in this message that 'the mention of the deaths of 70 of our compatriots due to dialysis, all of which occurred in the previous period,' and 'at that time, a judicial case was formed, and by expediting the proceedings, we can respond to public concerns.' The head of the public relations of this ministry announced that 'the Ministry of Health has emphasized that immediate actions have been taken to collect contaminated peritoneal fluid' and stressed that 'there is currently no cause for concern.' These statements from this government official come while dialysis patients contaminated with aluminum or peritoneal fluid are still hospitalized. The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health's reaction comes as the spokesperson for the Health Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly confirmed on November 12 the media reports from June this year regarding the deaths of dialysis patients in several hospitals in Iran. Salman Ishaqi stated that the exact number of fatalities was 70, attributing the cause of this incident to 'aluminum-contaminated solution.' The spokesperson for the Health Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly noted: 'We held a meeting with the relevant officials to investigate this issue, and it became clear that one of the companies was at fault in this regard, but the head of the mentioned company claims that there was no oversight on the raw materials of the drug that was contaminated with aluminum.' The analytical news site Asr Iran identified the producer of the aluminum-contaminated peritoneal dialysis solutions as the pharmaceutical company Saman, affiliated with the Astan Quds Razavi, and reported, citing Ham-Mihan, that the contaminated batch of peritoneal dialysis solution had been distributed in the country since December 2022 and had poisoned many patients by May 2023. Problems in the health and treatment sector, particularly in drug supply in recent years, led the Health and Treatment Commission of the parliament to investigate the reasons for drug shortages and price increases, which, after reading the report prepared on April 23, 2023, the representatives opposed referring it to the judiciary. Reports indicate the deaths of 70 dialysis patients due to 'aluminum-contaminated solution' in Iran, one dead and five poisoned in Zanjan after consuming counterfeit beverages, and the death of 41 people in four provinces of Iran due to counterfeit beverage consumption, with 21 victims in Mazandaran province over nine days.