A recent New York Times article reported that people in developing countries who have cancer and other diseases that cause devastating pain do not obtain common, effective and low-cost pain medication like morphine. Despite an overabundance of the raw ingredients for opium, morphine and codeine, and the ability to manufacture it for medical use very cheaply, patients with extreme pain the developing world are routinely denied this type of palliative care because of a combination of over-regulation and outdated medical practices. CGD vice president for programs and operations Ruth Levine suggests that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other funders of HIV/AIDS programs could help change this by taking seriously their mandate for palliative care--including pain management.
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