Problems with distribution of therapeutic food to patients were identified in 12 regions

Patients with short bowel syndrome from the end of 2024-beginning of 2025 have not been given the medical nutrition and medical devices they need in a timely manner, Evgeniya Birkaya, general director of the patient organization "Wind of Hopes", told Izvestia. According to her, this situation has arisen in 12 regions.

Window of denial: three regions do not dispense medicines for pituitary abnormalities

Interruption of therapy leads to heart failure and diabetes in patients, experts said

"Now in Kaluga, Kemerovo regions, Altai and Mordovia republics, in Primorsky and Zabaikalsky krais, in Moscow region food is not given to children. Adults have problems with drug supply in Moscow, Irkutsk and Arkhangelsk regions, in Krasnodar Krai and Bashkiria," she said.

Eugenia Birkaya said that specialized therapeutic nutrition is prescribed to patients by a medical commission.

"And already with its protocols parents of sick children and adult patients apply to the regional ministries of health, where they receive refusals, after which they apply to the courts," she said.

Dina Rybina, head of the enteral nutrition and rehabilitation department with intensive care group of the Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology, stressed that without specialized therapeutic nutrition, patients with short bowel syndrome may develop metabolic disorders and secondary immunodeficiency states.

"Also, due to excessive bacterial growth, infectious complications, up to sepsis, may occur. Other complications include osteoporosis. The condition develops due to calcium and vitamin D deficiency. This leads to decreased bone mineral density and an increased risk of fractures. Even without nutrition, patients may experience anemia due to a deficiency of B vitamins and iron," she added.

All these factors, emphasized Dina Rybina, increase the risk of mortality. In Europe and America, where the disease is better studied than in Russia, its mortality rate is 11-37.5%, the expert concluded.

Read more in Izvestia's exclusive story:

Therapeutic wandering: patients with intestinal diseases left without support