{"id":36962,"date":"2026-03-26T11:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36962\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:21:07","slug":"how-the-iran-war-is-affecting-medicine-around-the-world-from-cancer-drugs-to-helium-for-mris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36962\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Iran war is affecting medicine around the world, from cancer drugs to helium for MRIs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat\u2019s Global Checkup<\/a> in your inbox a day early.<\/p>\n

Hello from Nairobi.<\/p>\n

This week we start with a reminder that the world\u2019s conflicts rarely stay confined to the map. The Iran war is scrambling medical supply chains globally, because the Persian Gulf is not just an energy chokepoint but a critical transit hub for pharmaceuticals. <\/p>\n

That said \u2026 we\u2019re feeling the energy squeeze, too! Rumors of fuel rationing started circulating in Nairobi early this week, which was enough to send me out late at night to fill up my tank just in case.<\/p>\n

My name is William Herkewitz<\/a>, and I\u2019m a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the Global Health Checkup,<\/a> where I highlight some of the week\u2019s most important stories on outbreaks, medicine, science, and survival from around the world.<\/p>\n

With that, as we say in Swahili: karibu katika habari \u2014 welcome to the news.<\/p>\n

The Iran war is a drug shipping fiasco<\/p>\n

The starkest warning yet of how the Iran war could scramble global health comes from this must-read analysis in Think Global Health<\/a>. The short version: The war is choking the movement of medicines around the world. <\/p>\n

To be clear, it\u2019s not that the Persian Gulf countries (like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) are major drug producers. They\u2019re not. It\u2019s that these countries form \u201ca critical pharmaceutical transit hub,\u201d where drugs and their basic ingredients from India, Europe, and China routinely pass before heading to Africa, Asia, and the United States. <\/p>\n

For reference, this is a region whose \u201cpharmaceutical industry is worth $23.7 billion,\u201d but where roughly 80% of that trade depends on medicines or pharmaceutical ingredients passing through. <\/p>\n

And right now both ways these medicines largely transit, the sea shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf\u2019s giant cargo airports, are badly disrupted. Shipping has dropped \u201c90% below pre-war levels,\u201d while air cargo capacity has fallen by \u201c79% in the Gulf region.\u201d <\/p>\n

Where will the shocks be felt first? <\/p>\n

I reached out to one of the authors, Prashant Yadav at the Council on Foreign Relations, who is a leading expert on global health care supply chains to ask.<\/p>\n

Right now the biggest risk is cold-chain medicines, which he writes are \u201cvaccines, insulin, biologics, and cancer therapies\u201d with \u201cshort shelf lives\u201d that have to move quickly and stay within a tight temperature range; largely \u201cbetween 2\u00b0C and 8\u00b0C,\u201d 35-46\u00b0F. <\/p>\n

Most cold-chain medicines move by air cargo, Yadav told me, and airlines cannot simply add new capacity overnight if those routes stay disrupted. Even over the medium term, \u201cI don\u2019t think European airlines, or the two major African ones that have stepped in, will enhance their cargo carrying capacity by buying new planes just because this may continue for a few more months,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

When shipments of these drugs are held up, those medicines can spoil. And even when they don\u2019t, delays multiply. As the article notes, cargo carriers \u201cneed a week and a half to catch up for every week that air shipments are suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also at risk is helium supplies, a gas that is \u201can essential input for cooling the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used worldwide for [over 95 million] medical scans,\u201d each year. Qatar alone produces a third of the world\u2019s helium. And the threat is not just constraints from the transit fiasco, but physical damage to the industry, including Iran\u2019s March 18 attack on a major helium production site in Qatar. <\/p>\n

Yadav believes we will ultimately see some \u201csupply impact for MRI helium,\u201d but exactly how severe it may become is too hard to untangle right now. Much will depend on how long Qatar\u2019s production remains offline and how exactly limited supplies are allocated between industries, like semiconductor manufacturing (which is an enormous use for the gas).<\/p>\n

Perhaps unexpectedly, the war has also put medical research under threat. Yadav\u2019s article describes how the Gulf region was in the middle of a clinical trial boom, driven by \u201cthe area\u2019s high chronic-disease prevalence and its lenient regulations allowing for fast-tracked trials,\u201d and that supply chain chaos could interrupt ongoing trials. <\/p>\n

The good news is that, for now, “short-term risks of drug shortages are low in most countries,\u201d Yadav writes. But that\u2019s because of \u201cinventory buffers\u201d that governments and pharmaceutical companies keep around the world. But those cushions are temporary. If shipping and air freight disruptions drag on, shortages will eventually work their way through the system. <\/p>\n

I also asked Yadav whether the war could trigger a price squeeze for medicines made with petroleum products, which is more than you might think. \u201cMost of our medicines have some kind of a chemical precursor, and a very significant portion of those chemical precursors are petrochemical derivatives,\u201d he said. (For example, acetaminophen and ibuprofen are made using an oil-based chemical called propylene.) <\/p>\n

But Yadav says, for now, that\u2019s not a major concern. The petrochemical ingredients in something like a pill of ibuprofen only make up only around 5% of the cost, with the rest tied up in processing and manufacturing.<\/p>\n

But other cost implications are coming fast. A combination of rerouted flights, rising air-cargo rates, and surging insurance premiums for ships mean that moving medicines are more expensive everywhere. And at least one supply chain logistics firm says that, \u201cconsumers could see drug costs affected within four to six weeks<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Yadav\u2019s article ends with a clear policy warning. Governments may need to temporarily loosen certain import regulations so medicines can move through alternate routes. Longer term, he says the world needs something bigger: a standing G20 coordination system that tracks where medicines are stuck and helps countries respond before shortages hit. <\/p>\n

Get the Global Health Checkup newsletter.<\/p>\n

Stay informed on the state of global public health with weekly reports from journalist and former American diplomat William Herkewitz.<\/p>\n

A rare campus outbreak<\/p>\n

The UK is facing an outbreak of meningococcal disease among university students in Kent, which is in England\u2019s southeast. It has already killed two people, the BBC reports<\/a>. The outbreak has drawn serious attention in British media, because while the disease is rare, it strikes with a fairly shocking speed and quickly becomes deadly.<\/p>\n

Disease breakdown<\/a>: Meningococcal disease is an illness caused by a bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis. It spreads through respiratory droplets, similar to Covid, and often starts with flu-like symptoms, followed by patients developing a distinct red and purple rash. It is largely preventable through vaccination, and can be treated with antibiotics, although it can leave survivors with permanent disabilities. Confusingly, outbreaks are sometimes referred to more broadly as \u201cmeningitis\u201d in mass media, which is a condition that refers to the often-deadly inflammation of the tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n

A Scientific American<\/a> report on the situation framed the outbreak as a reminder of why vaccination programs matter. William Schaffner, an infectious disease physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Scientific American that \u201cthis outbreak is a very unusual event,\u201d and underscored \u201chow routine, comprehensive vaccination has had a profound effect on really dramatically reducing the occurrence of what was once an extreme, ordinarily feared infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading that, my immediate question was if the UK outbreak might portend something broader: like a smaller equivalent of the measles resurgence, where slipping vaccination coverage is allowing outbreaks to return?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, that seems unlikely. The Kent outbreak was caused by a rarer strain of meningococcal disease known as strain B. While many children are routinely vaccinated against it, vaccine boosters for strain B are often offered only selectively in places like the UK and United States because cases are so uncommon. That means the gap that appears on college campuses is usually not missed shots but fading protection as immunity wanes over time.<\/p>\n

I also reached out to Schaffner directly, who told me that \u201cthe outbreak in Kent does not portend similar outbreaks elsewhere.\u201d He emphasized that the disease holds \u201cvery little risk to the general public for two reasons,\u201d he said. First, because it needs close, repeated contact to spread. The illness spreads \u201cmost readily amongst semi-confined populations such as university students\u201d who share classrooms, dorms, and nightlife, he said. (The epicenter of this spread is believed to have been a bar). <\/p>\n

Second, containment is relatively straightforward. In Kent, \u201cthe public health response has been brisk and comprehensive,\u201d he said, with health officials quickly giving antibiotics to people who may have been exposed.<\/p>\n

Vaccine side effects (… good ones!)<\/p>\n

A senior infectious disease reporter I follow, Helen Branswell, just published an interesting article in STAT News<\/a> that sits somewhere between op-ed and straight news. She walks readers through vaccine by vaccine to explain a simple but often overlooked point: Immunization programs rarely benefit just one person against one pathogen. <\/p>\n

Pure speculation on my part, but I\u2019m imagining this story originated as a sort of professional self-care for a veteran health reporter. After watching the maddening vaccine debate circle the bowl of conspiracy-land too many times, maybe you just need to reset the conversation. Anyhow, I\u2019m here for it! <\/p>\n

I won\u2019t walk through the whole list here, but three examples really jumped out to me:<\/p>\n

Rubella vaccination in kids has essentially eliminated a once-devastating birth defect in mothers that left many babies \u201cdeaf, blind, or with developmental delays.\u201d <\/p>\n

The meningitis vaccine has helped decimate gonorrhea infections, with surprising studies suggesting the shot offers about a \u201c30% to 40%\u201d spillover protection against the sexually transmitted infection.<\/p>\n

And Human Papillomavirus vaccination has turned into what one expert called \u201cone of the most elegant herd immunity stories that we have\u201d in public health, reducing several cancer rates broadly\u2026 even in men who were never the original targets of the vaccine program.<\/p>\n

Argentina, out of the WHO<\/p>\n

Argentina has finally made good on its year-old promise to withdraw from the World Health Organization, Al Jazeera reports<\/a>. It is the second country to ever do so, after the United States. It may sound symbolic, but the move cuts off Argentina from the United Nations agency which (as we\u2019ve covered extensively<\/a>) \u201cmonitors health trends, tracks disease, promotes health care access, and trains medical providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why\u2019d they do it? <\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s President Javier Milei has framed the move as a matter of national \u201csovereignty,\u201d criticizing the WHO\u2019s \u201chealth advice during the Covid-19 pandemic,\u201d and saying Argentina will pursue \u201cinternational cooperation in health through bilateral agreements\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

Do those arguments sound familiar? They should, as both the criticisms and the shift toward bilateral deals echo the exact complaints and policies we\u2019ve heard from the Trump administration. So, it\u2019s clearly Argentina\u2019s model. <\/p>\n

Not to quibble, but it\u2019s worth noting one key point: The WHO does not control countries\u2019 health policies, and its Covid-19 recommendations were never strong-armed on Argentina. It is an advisory body. (Just ask Sweden, or Argentina\u2019s neighbor Uruguay<\/a>). <\/p>\n

My takeaway? Ultimately, unless this move somehow triggers further exits, I\u2019m not seeing it as a dramatic new fracture in global health cooperation. It\u2019s another aftershock of far-right domestic politics that have been spilling into health policy since 2025. <\/p>\n

Secret jungle medical school<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s finish this week with a remarkable story from The Guardian<\/a>, which followed a group of nursing students in Myanmar who just graduated from a \u201csecret jungle school\u201d of medicine built during the country\u2019s civil war. <\/p>\n

The background: After the military coup in 2021 destroyed large parts of the public health system, an underground network of clinics emerged. This \u201cparallel secret health system\u201d surfaced to treat injured pro-democracy fighters and \u201cthose who cannot risk government-controlled hospitals or who live in the vast areas of the country which are outside the regime\u2019s control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the effort expanded beyond treating patients to training the next generation of nurses. One nursing teacher \u201ccontacted colleagues in the U.K., and together nurses in Myanmar and Britain arranged video masterclasses,\u201d for a full curriculum. <\/p>\n

All told, \u201cdozens of international academics recorded lectures for the 58 modules needed to cover Myanmar\u2019s curriculum, and \u201cthe Phoenix Bachelor of Nursing Science\u201d degree was born. <\/p>\n

The article describes how lectures were \u201csmuggled on memory sticks across the country,\u201d and how the students completed their training under extraordinary conditions: like studying in remote classrooms while dodging drone surveillance and airstrikes. As one organizer put it, \u201csafety is never guaranteed.\u201d Another described bombs landing \u201cright next to the classroom.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a powerful read, and the new graduates say the program represents something larger than medical training. \u201cThe name Phoenix itself is powerful for us. It symbolizes rising from the ashes of the destruction the coup has caused \u2026 We are the living proof that education and hope cannot be extinguished by violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll see you next week!<\/p>\n

William<\/p>\n

William Herkewitz<\/a> is a reporter covering global public health for Healthbeat. He is based in Nairobi. Contact William at wherkewitz@healthbeat.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat\u2019s Global Checkup in your inbox a day early. Hello from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[5277,16429,5084,39,16430,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-36962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-basra","9":"tag-healthbeat","10":"tag-horizontal","11":"tag-persian-gulf","12":"tag-shipping-containers","13":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116295216997638307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}