Pakistan facing acute shortage of life-saving drugs, say experts

At a time when all the resources are being utilised in Pakistan to contain the spread of the coronavirus, hospitals and pharmacies are facing an acute shortage of imported life-saving medical products, including vaccines, insulin, immunoglobulin, plasma-derived products and recombinant biologicals, health officials said on Tuesday.

“Due to some bureaucratic hurdles at Islamabad, closure of flights and other reasons, Pakistan is facing an extreme shortage of life-saving vaccines, including anti-rabies vaccines (ARVs), anti-snake sera, insulin, pentavalent and tetanus vaccines, mumps, measles and rubella vaccines. This may result in loss of precious lives in the coming days due to numerous diseases, in addition to COVID-19,” warned Asim Jamil, representatives of biological products’ importers in Pakistan, on Tuesday.

Biological products’ importers said they had managed to import over 400 biological products from around the globe with extreme difficulties, but due to non-appointment of the chief analyst of the National Control Laboratory, these 400 products were not being allowed to be supplied in the country, while people had started dying due to their unavailability at pharmacies and hospitals throughout the country.

Health experts said that at the moment, there was an extreme shortage of vaccines for rabies, tetanus, pneumococcal and typhoid, recombinant biologicals (erythropoietin, hepatitis B vaccine), plasma-derived products (tetanus immunoglobulin, rabies immunoglobulin, anti-D immunoglobulin, intravenous immunoglobulin, albumin), equine/rabbit serum products (rabies antiserum, anthithymocyte globulin, anti-snake venom serum), oncology (monoclonal antibodies), cardiology (heparin, streptokinase), insulin and many others.

They said that amid the lockdown in the country, at least a hundred people, including children, were being mauled by stray dogs in Karachi alone, who required anti-rabies vaccine in addition to immunoglobulin, but due to bureaucratic hurdles and authorities’ failure, these products were not being allowed to be provided to the health facilities, which could result in the loss of precious lives.

An eminent infectious diseases (ID) expert at the Indus Hospital Karachi, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, said many institutions in Karachi and other cities of Sindh were facing problems with respect to the anti-rabies vaccine as it was not available in the country. He added that they had been stockpiling the ARVs and immunoglobulin so they had no problem at the moment.

“For the last two weeks, we have been seeing brutal attacks by stray/unknown dogs from different areas, including Muhajir Camp, Surjani Town and Mehmoodabad, of Karachi, showing abnormal behaviour of stray dogs against people, especially children playing in the streets. Also, there are many patients being referred to the Indus Hospital from other hospitals to complete the anti-rabies vaccine series as OPDs are closed in hospitals or due to lack of the rabies vaccine there etc.,” Dr Salahuddin added.

Even Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho has asked the federal government and the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, to resolve the issue of vaccines and pre-purchase them so that in case of a global shortage, federal and provincial institutions could have ample stocks of the vaccines.

“Scientists across the globe are busy in preparing a vaccine to neutralise the novel coronavirus, which has claimed more than 150,000 lives so far. We believe this may cause a shortage of vaccines used to treat other infections. In these circumstances, there is an urgent need to acquire these vaccines and biological products to save precious lives in the country,” she said in her statement a couple of days back.

Many paediatricians in the country have also decried the unavailability of measles and other vaccines, which are very important for children, and demanded of ther health authorities to make them available as soon as possible. The fear the shortage of the vaccines could lead to another serious healthcare crisis in the country.