Anti-rabies serum not available round the clock at health centres

CHANDIGARH: Friday’s incident where an 11-year-old dog bite victim kept shuttling between city health centres to find immunoglobulin serum —has once again exposed the unavailability of immunoglobulin serum at the city health centres.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

Friday’s incident where an 11-year-old dog bite victim kept shuttling between city health centres to find immunoglobulin serum —has once again exposed the unavailability of immunoglobulin serum at the city health centres. Soon after the death of a seven-year-old girl from the city due to rabies on April 15 — whose family was forced to arrange for the immunoglobulin serum from Ambala — the UT Health Department had announced that the anti-rabies dispensary in Sector 19 would work in double shifts to provide the serum in evening hours also.

However, till date, the dispensary closes at 1 pm. Nearly 10 days ago, office of the UT Director Health Services (DHS) was directed by the Health Secretary to procure stocks of immunoglobulin serum so that the serum could be available round the clock at the emergency unit of the GMSH, Sector 16. However, the purchase is yet awaited.

Chamkaur Singh, an 11-year-old boy from Mansa district, bitten on the leg by a ferocious dog on May 21, first struggled to find treatment in different hospitals across Punjab and then reached the PGI on Friday morning.

When doctors asked the family to buy the injection from the market, they could not find it at chemist shops they rushed to. At 5 pm, the victim was referred to the GMSH-16, but the hospital only had basic anti-rabies injection. He was then sent to the dispensary in Sector 19 but it was already closed.

The family then reached RML Hospital in New Delhi late Friday night and got him vaccinated.

While UT Health Secretary Anurag Agarwal could not be contacted for comments, DHS Dr VK Gagneja, said, “The vaccines were to be procured but it is still in the process. It will take some more time.”

On April 15, seven-year-old Sadia died nearly 20 days after the dog bite. She was bitten on lips and her family struggled for the vaccine in a similar manner the way Chamkaur’s family did despite the fact that she was admitted to a premier institute, the PGI.