A Ukrainian health official says authorities are planning to lift tight restrictions for administering opium-based analgesics to cancer-stricken patients.
Unlike most countries where patients receive morphine in tablets, the drug is administered in Ukraine solely in injectable form and only by a professional nurse. The daily dose is limited to 50 milligrams — much less than cancer patients and others suffering from acute pain usually need.
Health Ministry official Yuri Gubsky told the Tonis television channel Thursday that he hopes that morphine in tablets will be officially approved in Ukraine in the coming months and that the daily restriction will be removed.
Ksenia Shapoval, a palliative care expert with the International Renaissance foundation, says she hopes patients will also be allowed to self-administer injectable morphine.
