Paucity of rabies vaccine draws public ire

There is a severe shortage of rabies vaccine in almost all healthcare dispensation outlets in Khairpur district of Sindh.

The poor healthcare dispensation, coupled with the paucity of life-saving medicines, like rabies vaccine have been risking precious lives.

People have been clamouring for the basic health facility in the face of rising dog bite incidents in the province in general and district in particular.

According to citizens, People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) is responsible for providing rabies vaccine to dog bite victims in all government hospitals across Sindh.

However, PPHI failed to ensure the availability of necessary vaccines like rabies.

A large number of patients informed that there is no vaccine in government hospitals. “Officials at government hospitals refer patients to PPHI Centre, but the staff at the centre rebuff people and tell them that “it is not our responsibility to provide the vaccine, you better go to Civil Hospital,” the protesting patients revealed.

They staged a protest against the health authorities and flayed the officials' negligence to ensure availability of life-saving drugs like rabies vaccine.

The patients from across the district staged a protest and blocked Old National Highway in front of PPHI Centre in Khairpur.

The protesters chanted slogans against the PPHI staff. The road closure caused a traffic jam for two hours.

Two of the protesters Ghulam Baqir and Akram Chandio told the media that the Sindh government has failed to control the stray dogs.

They said the number of dog bite incident has witnessed a sharp rise, which has been intensified by the shortage of rabies vaccine.

“The Sindh govt neither could eliminate stray dogs, nor provide rabies vaccine,” they regretted.

The protesters appealed to the government to take immediate steps for availability of rabies vaccine.