Wasteful billions

Over a decade after Sindh first launched a project to produce its own anti-snakebite serum, the province still has nothing tangible to show for it. The Public Accounts Committee's recent revelation that Rs1.7 billion have gone into this project since 2012, yet no doses have been delivered, is a major bureaucratic failing as well as a public-health crisis.

Snakebites are not a minor burden in Sindh. Tens of thousands of incidents are reported each year and around a dozen types of snakes are poisonous, with seven of them deadly. Despite this, the National Institute of Health in Islamabad produces the province's only source of antivenom, which it does so sparingly. Only a few thousand doses are received from the capital annually, thus turning the absence of Sindh's own antivenom into a game that gambles with human lives. This inadequacy is exacerbated as snake encounters are most common in rural communities and villages - communities that lack reliable access to, and the financial means for, prompt medical care.

The Sindh Institute of Animal Health's plan to immunise horses and build a venom farm is theoretically sound as several countries have built similar capabilities successfully. But the efficacy of acquiring machinery, setting up quality-control labs and producing effective antivenom all in an appropriate amount of time hinges on the institution's will to succeed and governmental backing. Both of these measures have often failed in the past.

Sindh's leadership must treat this as a long-term life-saving infrastructure instead of an experimental project. Forging partnerships with experienced international producers is also a viable route that can produce reliable and scientifically sound results. For a province that is already expending vast amounts of money, the time to demand outcomes instead of mere promises has arrived. Anything less is a betrayal of public trust.