Pindi faces acute shortage of dengue medicine

Patients suffering from dengue fever struggle to find life-saving drugs

RAWALPINDI:

Rawalpindi is facing an acute shortage of medicines used to treat dengue fever amidst the onslaught of the dengue mosquito and the rising number of cases.

Fever-breaking pills and syrups have become scarce and wholesale dealers have run out of stocks.

There has been a shortage of life-saving medicines due to the unusual buying and selling of medicines for flood victims.

Drugs used to treat dengue patients have completely disappeared from the market and patients bear the brunt of the shortage.

Muhammad Noman, whose father had dengue fever, told The Express Tribune that his father is undergoing treatment at the Holy Family Hospital for the past three days. Doctors prescribe medicines to buy from the market but essential drugs such as Panadol and Brufen are not available in the market in the city and Cantonment areas. He said that the non-availability of medicines has become a serious problem and someone told him that he could get the drugs from Taxila and Wah Cantonment.

Muhammad Younis, who is associated with the wholesale pharmacy business in Bohar Bazaar, said that the government and welfare organisations have made extraordinary purchases of essential life-saving medicines for flood victims which has created a shortage in the market.

He said that drugs used to treat fever, diarrhoea, cholera, headache, malaria, and nose and throat infections were completely out of stock due to unusual purchases.

He said that there was enough stock of drugs in the market prior to the floods but after the flood, the demand for medicines has increased and the pharma industry was not ready to cope with the high demand.

Pakistan Chemists and Druggists’ Association District President Malik Arshad Awan told The Express Tribune that there has been an acute shortage of life-saving medicines in the city. He said that patients and doctors were facing serious problems due to the unavailability of several medicines in the market.

He said that the main reason for the shortage of medicines was the increase in the value of the dollar against the rupee. It has become difficult for traders associated with the pharma industry to meet import expenses, he said adding that the local pharma industry imports chemicals used in medicines from India, China, Japan and other countries and purchases are made in dollars. He said that they cannot make expensive medicine and sell them at low prices. He said that the increase in electricity bills by the government has also had a bad effect on the pharma industry and its production has come to almost a standstill.

He demanded that the government should give immediate relief to the pharma industry so that the production of life-saving medicines can be maximised.

Health department officials said they were monitoring the situation. They claimed that doctors could prescribe alternate medicine for patients. They claimed that all government hospitals have ample stock of medicine for fever and other diseases.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2022.