Communicable disease: ‘Anti rabies vaccine is substandard’

Health Dept, WHO launch programme against rabies that will run across Punjab for two years.

LAHORE:

The National Institute of Health vaccine, used in the country for cases of dig bite, is substandard, Dr Quaid Saeed, the programme officer of the Rabies Control Programme by the Health Department, said on Friday.

Dr Saeed was talking in a meeting organised by the Health Department and the World Health Organisation to announce a joint programme launched on Friday to control rabies. The meeting was arranged to develop a joint and comprehensive rabies control strategy with the help of the Livestock Department, Veterinary Sciences Punjab and the local district government. The programme will run across Punjab for two years.

Dr Saeed said that the vaccine to be used in this programme will be imported. “It will be cost between Rs500 to Rs600. We plan to ask the government subsidise the treatment,” he said.

A National Health Management Information System 2010 report was shared in the meeting. According to the report, there were more than 97,000 recorded cases of dog bites in the country. These numbers were obtained from the basic health units only. Moreover, it stated that 80 per cent of the cases were handled by private practitioners, spiritual healers and quacks.

Dr Saeed said that the department was also working towards organising statistics on dog bite. He said that the surveys done so far revealed that most of the victims of dog bites were children under 15 years of age. A mass media campaign will also be launched, he said. “Killing dogs is not the solution. When dogs are killed, dogs from other areas soon replace them,” he said.  He said that dogs could be given oral medicines to increase their immunity against rabies.

Dr Mubashar Malik, the Communicable Disease Control director, said that all 36 district headquarters hospitals will be provided with training through the programme. He said that teams comprising a doctor, a dispenser and a nurse will be appointed at all tehsil headquarters hospitals. He said that four training workshops had already been held at district headquarters hospitals. More training sessions will be held in Multan, Lahore and Islamabad from July 15 to July 20, he said.

Bacteriologist Dr Zarfishan Tahir, the Health Department director general, said that the programme also aims at educating parents. “Cleaning the wound with soap water reduces chances of the disease by 30 per cent,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2011.