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| Allied hospitals claim enough TCV for all, victims unsatisfied |
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Muhammad Qasim
Rawalpindi
Heavy influx of dog-bite victims at the allied hospitals show the consistently rising number of such cases while a number of victims and their attendants have complained of no proper treatment available at public sector hospitals across the district.
Recently, one Sher Afzal, son of Misri Khan, a resident of Kahuta, died of rabies due to finding no treatment in government hospitals. However, administrations of the three allied hospitals in town - District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and Holy Family Hospital (HFH) - claimed to have been providing Tissue Culture Vaccine (TCV) for the treatment of suspected rabies cases.
“We have administered TCV to more than 30 dog-bite cases today,” said Director Emergency DHQ Hospital Dr Irfan Khilji while talking to ‘The News’ Wednesday. He, however, added that a number of government sector hospitals might not be having the vaccine for the treatment of rabies, as the National Institute of Health, Islamabad has not been providing them Anti-Rabies Vaccine sheep brain sample type.
He said DHQ Hospital purchased some 1,000 vials of TCV from open market on September 16 this year, of which nearly 500 vials have already been administered to dog-bite victims reaching the hospital. “We have more than 500 vials of TCV available,” he claimed adding that TCV is being provided to all dog-bite victims visiting DHQ Hospital.
To a query, he said most of the dog-bite victims reaching DHQ Hospital have been referred from other hospitals and healthcare facilities. “Today, on Wednesday, we received victims from various tehsils of Rawalpindi District and even Islamabad,” he said.
Official spokesman of BBH Dr Basher Malik, when contacted by ‘The News’, said BBH is providing TCV to dog-bite victims after purchasing it from open market. “TCV is available round the clock at the BBH emergency department to deal with dog-bite victims,” he said.
Casualty Medical Officer at HFH Emergency Department Dr Fareeha expressed to ‘The News’ that the administration of antiretroviral (ARV) has been declared obsolete by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and HFH is not administering ARV to dog-bite cases currently. “We have arranged TCV from open market for suspected rabies patients,” she claimed. To a query, she said the influx of dog-bite cases at HFH is on the rise. “We receive 2-3 suspected cases of rabies daily.”
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ISSN 1563-9479 
