Bekhal was fading fast. The 25-year old woman, trapped in her native Kurdistan in northern Iraq, had unknowingly taken counterfeit medications, given to her by doctors, and as a result the Leukemia in her bones continued to spread. Standing frailly in a doorway of her family home, Bekhal listened as her father told me about the investigation into the phony drugs. Now, only days after being given the medication in a government hospital, doctors informed Bekhal that recovery within Kurdistan was impossible. Facing few options, the father outlined his plan to sell his modest house to travel with Bekhal to India in search of a last chance to save his only daughter. When I returned to my native Kurdistan to administer heath aid to refugees, I encountered countless individuals like Bekhal who were suffering unnecessarily because of a lack of government quality control and drug safety. In Kurdistan, years of war, oppression and sanctions imposed on...
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