LARKANA:Acute shortage of life-saving anti-rabbies vaccine (ARV) has forced the poor patients to procure it from the open market, causing tremendous hardships to them in saving their precious lives.
As many as 4808 dog bite cases were reported in first six months of 2019 from January to June in four taluka of Larkana district for which only 6356 vials were supplied. The follow-up cases were 10,007 during the same period. These vaccines are provided to the ARV Centre by District Health Officer (DHO), Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), PPHI and IHS which are to be injected to the affected cases of entire Larkana district as treatment of dog bite cases has been centralized since past several years owing to disputes between the health providers over jurisdiction of the cases.
According to the breakup, 2174 dog bite cases were reported in Larkana Taluka during past six months, 1184 in Ratodero, 486 in Dokri and 984 in Bakrani taluka. These figures clearly indicate that Larkana and Ratodero are the most affected taluka in the district for which no effective campaign has been launched by the relevant local bodies institutions to eliminate stray and pye dogs in their respective limits despite repeated instructions by the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
According to the data obtained by this scribe on Friday, total cost of the vaccines is Rs 54,83,200 (each vial cost is Rs 800) and cost of disposable syringes comes to Rs 1,30,400 (each syringe cost is Rs 10). In this way government spent Rs 56,13,600 on treatment of these cases and many were also left behind who either were not provided vaccines due to shortage or they purchased it from the market from their pocket. Those who could not afford to procure were left at the mercy of their Creator. The Centre also claims that 498 vials were also used which were procured from other unidentified sources. Last year in 2018 as many as 35,790 cases were reported at the Centre including followup cases. These figures clearly indicate that killing of stray dogs must regularly be carried out quarterly to save precious human lives and taxpayers money. CMCH supplied 1236 vials to the Centre during the same period, PPH1 2600 vials and IHS 2520 vials only whereas DHO failed to give even a single vial for patients coming from his jurisdiction.
Dr. Nooruddin Qazi, Coordinator and Incharge Divisional Monitoring Unit and ARV Centre, Larkana, said that only solution to this issue is regular but vigorous six-monthly campaign to eradicate stray and pye dogs or else the health service providers will have to ensure supply of required ARV vaccines to save human lives. He said ARV is not manufactured in Pakistan and is imported adding during peak season retailers black-market it and affected people procure it on higher rates which indeed is troublesome. He said 10 to 20% shortage is annually faced by this centre.
Dr Qazi said during 2018 as many as 32790 cases were treated whereas 15252 vials were supplied against demand of 16568 vials. Likewise, he added, 14815 cases have been registered during January-June 2019 for which 6854 vials have been given against requirement of 6356 vials thus a shortage of 500 vials is being faced.