Iranians Children with Rare Disease Dying under US, Sweden Sanctions

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of rare diseases that cause the skin to blister easily. Epidermolysis bullosa causes blisters, which quickly burst and leave slow-healing wounds like the one on this baby's knee. The skin blisters because it's so fragile. Fragile skin is usually noticeable at birth.

Hamidreza Hashemi said that most of the crimes against the children EB patients due to the sanctions were not yet documented. 

Hashemi referred to the lawsuit filed against the US former president Donald Trump in the country's international court's department for the documentation of the crime and said: "The process is going on and the documentation of food and drug embargo is contrary to the US claim that these two items are exceptions."

Currently, UNICEF has supplied part of the dressings for the patients, but there is still concern about providing the medical item, he added.

Hashemi reported that from March 2018 to March 2019 no medical dressings were provided for the children due to the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and reimposing sanctions on Iran, as a result of which 15 EB patients lost their lives. 

Iran's international nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between the country and the P5+1 group, including Russia, China, the UK, France, the US, and Germany in 2015, but the US withdrew from the agreement on May 18, 2018, re-imposing more sanctions on Iran.