Parents in Lebanon are distraught and desperately searching all pharmacies and cooperatives across the country for a container of baby formula for their infants.
The shortage in baby formula is the latest addition to the daily crises that shake the country. Only this one is risking the health and safety of newborns and infants, leaving mothers and fathers feeling helpless and enraged.
“You have no idea how stressful it is. I’d pay anything,” a new mother, Sally, told The961. “We were told that we can’t even order milk from abroad because Customs would seize the shipment,” adding that her daughter was crying hysterically prompting her to open the very last milk box.
Another new parent, Mahmoud, was offered to buy a box of baby formula from abroad and send it onboard with someone coming from the United States. He told us, “It’s too expensive in dollars. I would pay half of my salary for a single box of milk.”
After searching relentlessly in most pharmacies across the country, Sally, Mahmoud, and their partners, like many parents in Lebanon, are only holding on to hope that somehow a box of milk will turn up at a local pharmacy.
Distributors are accused of holding on to units of baby formula in anticipation of lifted subsidies so they can profit more – sparking concern over the loss of morality.
In response, state prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has declared that businesses and distributors hoarding subsidized medical supplies, medical equipment, and baby formula will be prosecuted.
