Japan has been able to secure the next-day delivery of pharmaceuticals in central Japan areas struck by a powerful New Year’s Day earthquake, albeit depending on road conditions, Health Minister Keizo Takemi said on January 9.
The quake mainly battered Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast. Speaking in a regular press conference, Mr Takemi explained that there are two routes to take requests for drug supplies to the region: 1) the Ishikawa prefectural government receives requests from medical institutions and then contacts local wholesalers, and 2) medical institutions directly send requests to wholesalers.
Requests not only include acute-care medicines needed immediately after the disaster, such as antimicrobials to treat trauma, but also insulin therapies for diabetes, among other treatments, the minister said.
“We have basically been able to distribute these medicines to local medical institutions the day after (the request), although it depends on road conditions,” he said.
On January 7, a mobile pharmacy vehicle reached the northern part of the peninsula called Oku-Noto, and it is now primarily operating in the city of Suzu. He said one more such vehicle will be added on January 9, which will mainly operate in the city of Wajima. “We’ll be dispatching more vehicles once local situations are confirmed,” he said.
