According to local reports, severe shortages of laboratory kits in Iran have led to the suspension of over 50 types of medical tests in the country.

Etemad newspaper on Friday reported that several medical diagnosis and genetic laboratories in Tehran and Esfahan have deactivated hormonal, infectious, and genetic tests in their registration systems because the required kits for performing these tests are unavailable.

The procurement of kits in Iran has been challenging in recent years, but this year the difficulty has reached a point where even buying them from the black market is not a possibility, the report says.

Over 80% of laboratory items in Iran are dependent on imports, and the equipment that is produced domestically requires its raw material to be imported as well.

The allocated foreign currency for importing laboratory equipment has experienced a sharp decrease to half of its previous amount in the past three years, according to the Etemad report.

Imports and the foreign currency market are controlled by the Iranian regime, meaning the funds that were meant for the purchase of medical tests have been spent elsewhere.

This is not the first time that medical products and equipment have become unavailable in Iran. Two years ago, there was a critical shortage of serums, and the Iranian Pharmacists Association stated that cost-cutting measures by the authorities was the leading cause of the shortages.

"We are facing both a shortage of kits and a significant increase in the prices of kits and other consumables, up to four or five times higher,” said Mohsen Manshadi, owner of the Manshadi Medical Diagnosis Laboratory in Tehran.

"Many times, my laboratory colleagues have had to repeat a test using multiple kits to arrive at the correct result or use cheaper kits,” Manshadi added.