KP hospitals face shortage of anti-rabies vaccines

PESHAWAR: Whether one should call it ignorance of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Dr Hisham Inamullah or his lack of commitment with his responsibility, there is severe shortage of the anti-rabies vaccine in the public sector health institutions despite his claim to have provided the vaccine to all hospitals of the province.

When this correspondent politely reminded the minister if he can check with the secretary health or other officials before making such a claim as dog bite victims were facing serious problems due to lack of anti-rabies vaccine in the hospitals, he stuck to his statement and said he had personally verified provision of the stocks to all hospitals of KP.

However, a senior official of the provincial Health Department clarified three days after the health minister’s claim that he was in fact referring to a notification issued by the director general health services on December 3, 2018 to all the district health officers (DHOs) to ensure availability of anti-rabies vaccine and anti-snake venom in their respective hospitals.

“As the shortlisted firm has regretted to provide ARV, so DHOs and medical superintendents of DHQ hospitals of KP are directed to procure the same vaccine from the market or National Institute of Health (NIH) on need basis to meet the public demand. It is further added that in case of non-availability, the controlling officer will be held responsible himself,” the DG health services had stated in an official communiqué, a copy of which is available with The News.

The fact is that right from a basic health unit to the KP’s oldest and largest public sector hospital, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), anti-rabies vaccine is not available.

Neither the minister nor DG health services took punitive action against any officer for not purchasing ARV for dog bite victims.

Some private pharmacies managed to arrange ARV from different places and are reportedly exploiting the situation by overcharging people. Iqbal Khan, a salesman in a cloth centre in Peshawar, was bitten by dogs in his village while going to a mosque to offer the Fajr prayer a few days ago. “I was taken to the emergency department of LRH where the doctors told us that they don’t have the vaccine. We purchased it from a pharmacy just across the road near the LRH emergency department. We paid Rs3,600 for three injections and also purchased some other injections prescribed by the doctors,” he said.

Siyar Khan, a government department’s employee, was also bitten by a stray dog in Katlang subdivision recently. He was taken to the Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) as the ARV wasn’t available in the local BHU or in the Category-D Hospital at Katlang.

He was made to wait in MMC for a few hours as they didn’t have the vaccine and tried to arrange it from somewhere else. His family finally shifted him to LRH in the hope that being the largest hospital it would provide them the vaccine.

Hospital Director Dr Khalid Masud said they tried to procure vaccine but could not find it. But Siyar Khan’s brother purchased it from a private pharmacy in front of LRH.