Anti-snake bite vaccine not available due to non-appointment of federal analyst at NCL

LAHORE: Heavy rains across the country have increased the incidents of snake biting but its vaccine is not available; thanks to the health ministry.

The monsoon season witnesses huge number of snake biting incidents in the rural areas of the country every year. But this time it is to prove deadly for masses as there is acute shortage of its vaccine due to the non appointment of the Federal Analyst at National Control Laboratory (NCL). And federal health ministry has failed to find a permanent solution in this regard despite that Senator Dilawar Khan lately raised this issue at the Senate.

Dilawar Khan said "The federal analyst at NCL retired from his post five months ago. After his retirement, the post stayed vacant for one month. Then an analyst was appointed but only for three months. "Now, his tenure has also expired and since then more than a month has passed but nobody has been appointed on this position," Khan added. He said that this is very sensitive post as no vaccine can be delivered to government and private hospitals and pharmacies without the permission of the federal analyst.

"The cases of snake biting have increased these days but its vaccine is not available in the country due to this issue, the vaccines for Rabies and Tetanus are also not available. So this position should be filled immediately because it is very critical for the national health sector," said Dilawar.

According to details, after the retirement of Dr. Samad Khan the NHSR&C notified Zafar Mahmood Minhas on April 27 after almost 45 days. But, he was appointed just for three months effective from March 19th to June 19th. And now the appointment of the new analyst is being delayed once again by the ministry.

This delay has been resulting in the shortage of critical products, such as vaccines (Rabies, Tetanus, Typhoid, etc.), Oncology products, Heterologus serum products for solid organ transplants and aplastic anaemia, Plasma derived products, Insulin, and products for Burns wards and dialysis center, recombinant biological, Streptokinase, etc.

In June, Pakistan Chemists & Druggists Association requested to the Secretary of NHSR&C to process the notification of the federal government analyst at the NCL well in time. "Our member companies are importers of life saving biological product and they are extremely concerned about this situation," stated the association.

"Our plea is that kindly process the notification of the federal government analyst at the NCL well in time so that there should be no further delay to process lot releases," requested the association.

It is pertinent to mention here that provincial government hospitals, especially in Punjab, cannot use any biological product supplied to them without a letter from the federal government analyst.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020