Health minister says government helpless to take action against officials responsible. PHOTO: REUTERS
The government seems helpless to take action against officials responsible for wastage of 7,715 doses of vaccines at the National Institute of Health (NIH) last year.
The pentavalent vaccines, which protect against five diseases with a single shot, were spoiled because they were not stored at the proper temperature. The vaccines were donated by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Asked what action the government had taken against the officials responsible in National Assembly the other day, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) Saira Afzal Tarar said, “In this country, nothing can remove a government servant from his job except god.”
She was replying to a question by JUI-F MNA Naeema Kishwar Khan.
The minister said 7,715 doses of pentavalent vaccine were wasted while stored in an NIH cold room in February 2015.
The vaccine protected against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and a bacteria that causes meningitis and pneumonia.
The minister said that the vaccines were received in 2013 and were spoilt because they were not stored at the proper temperature. Tarar said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested five officials in this connection but they are out on bail and working in their previous positions.
She said the government had taken measures to avoid recurrence of such incident.
She added the ministry had constituted two committees for physical verification and terms of references for disposal of wasted vaccines besides rearrangement of vaccine.
“A web-based Vaccine Logistic Management Information System (vLMIS) has been implemented for all stock of vaccine and cold chain maintenance at the federal level,” the minister said.
Further, she said the ministry had installed 27 CCTV cameras inside the warehouse for 24/7 monitoring while digital data loggers had been installed for the cold rooms that record the history of temperature in the rooms up to 60 days.
80,000 annual deaths by hepatitis C
Replying to another question by PPP-MP Shahida Rehmani about annual death rate due to hepatitis in the country, the minister said there were about eight million cases of patients suffering from hepatitis C in the country, and an estimated 80,000 die each year due to liver disease.
“These deaths are due to very advanced liver disease called liver failure as usually these patients develop liver failure after living with the disease for 20-30 years during which they do not take treatment or the treatment fails or they develop liver cancer,” the minister stated.
She further added that in Pakistan, the death certificate does not disclose the cause of death, so checking death certificate to identify the cause of death was useless.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2016.
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