Since crisis-hit Lebanon announced the partial lifting of medicine subsidies last month, including on some drugs for chronic illnesses, cancer patients fear their life-saving treatment could be next in line.

In a ward of the Naef K Basile Cancer Institute, at the American University of Beirut’s Medical Center (AUBMC), breast cancer patient Janette Marhij said the economic meltdown crippling Lebanon’s fragile healthcare system had been more distressing than living through the country’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

“During the war at least people had money,” said Marhij, 63. “We’ve never experienced anything like this.”

Adding to the fear of not surviving cancer, the mother of four worries she will not be able to secure the medication needed to complete the treatment amid soaring prices and drug shortages.

“My son takes care of my medicines, he asks friends and acquaintances to search pharmacies around them,” Marhij said. “I’m dependent on him, I have no choice. If prices go up, I don’t know how he will be able to afford it.”

For more than two years, Lebanon has been in the throes of a deepening economic crisis that has plunged nearly three-quarters of its population into poverty.

The country’s central bank has for years provided subsidies for medicines, fuel and wheat to keep them at the country’s official pegged rate of $1 to 1,500 Lebanese pounds. But since the value of the local currency began tumbling in mid-2019, the central bank has been pulling back on subsidies draining its foreign reserves.

In November, the health ministry slashed medical subsidies from $120m per month to about $35m, raising the price of a wide range of medications by up to four times.

Cancer medications are among a small group of drugs still subsidised by the state. Other medications for chronic diseases, such as insulin, were hit by the lifting of subsidies and now cost more than the monthly minimum wage (from about 180,000 Lebanese pounds to 730,000).

Riwa al-Atrash, a health ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that “there is no plan to lift the subsidies” for cancer medication. However, she admitted that Lebanon’s economic crisis – described as one of the world’s worst in decades – offers no guarantees for the future.

The price hikes, coupled with the currency devaluation, have already left many Lebanese with deeply devalued salaries in the local currency struggling to afford basic medication.

A 50-tablet box of Buscopan cost 12,418 Lebanese pounds ($8) in October 2019 and now costs a little over 141,000 Lebanese pounds – the equivalent of $94 dollars at the official currency exchange rate.