MiA: PCR kits missing in Pindi

Patients have to get tested at private labs, which cost them around Rs8,000 to Rs10,000.

ISLAMABAD: Hepatitis patients in Rawalpindi have headaches of their own as the three main government hospitals are not offering the diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test due to a shortage of testing kits, sources have revealed.

The hundreds of patients who come to these hospitals for treatment every month have to get tested at private labs, which cost them around Rs8,000 to Rs10,000.

Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) Principal Dr Mussadiq Khan, who is also head of the three hospitals, admitted that a shortage of the kits exists and blamed the Punjab government for not supplying them.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2012.