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Pain, pain go away

September 11, 2007 by smazsyr

Worth noting that even as our blue chip medical institutes, universities and drug companies come up with space age molecules for baffling diseases, something as simple as pain medication remains beyond the reach of millions suffering.

From the New York Times:

“He was dying of cancer, with lots of tumors on his face and scalp,” Dr. Rajagopal recalled. “His family asked if I could help, and I couldn’t — I was just a medical student.”

Today, the same neighbor with the same cancer would almost certainly die the same way — unless he lived in tiny Kerala State, where Dr. Rajagopal runs his Pallium India clinic here in the capital. Although opium was one of the chief exports of British India and the country still produces more for the legal morphine industry than any other country, few Indians benefit. They end up like millions of the world’s poor — spending their last days writhing in agony, wishing death would hurry.