DAILY TIMES (Islamabad, Pakistan) 08 May 08 ED denies anti-snake venom serum shortage
Islamabad: There is no shortage of anti-snake venom serum (ASVS) and anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) in the country, claims National Institute of Health (NIH) Executive Director Masood Anwar.
During a briefing to a select group of journalists here, Anwar said that the country got ASVS and ARV from the NIH and private sector. He said the NIH had limited production capacity therefore two thirds of the required ASVS and ARV was imported.
He said the country required 100,000 ASV vials and 100,000 ARV courses every year. He said the NIH produced 25,000 to 30,000 ASV vials and 35,000 to 40,000 ARV courses every year. This meets only one-third of the national requirement, he said.
He said the remaining two thirds of ASVS vials and ARV courses were imported. He said currently, four companies imported ARV courses and they had imported 90,000 such courses in the last 12 months. He said ASVS vials were imported by one company and 33,275 vials were imported in the last one year.
The NIH ED said all public sector hospitals and organisations tried to purchase required vials and courses from the NIH for low rates compared with the imported stuff.
He said imported ASVS vial cost Rs 1,000 to Rs 1400 each while the NIH sold the same for Rs 700. He said imported ARV cost Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 per course of cell culture vaccine. He said sheep brain vaccine (SBV) produced by the NIH cost Rs 500 per course. He said the NIH issued vaccines and sera to 538 hospitals/ dispensaries across the country on proportionate basis.
Anwar said the NIH had begun producing ASVS and ARV in 1965 and it catered well to all public sector hospitals until 1995. “But due to tremendous increase in human population and rise in the number of stray dogs, demand for the two went up threefold. We remained unable to meet the demand due to limited production capacity,” he said.
He, however, said the NIH had prepared a long-term strategy to increase the production of both ASVS and ARV and it was being implemented. He said the NIH had also worked out a plan to increase current vaccine production in the next six months to one year.
The NIH chief justified production of sheep brain vaccine by his organisation despite being considered inefficacious and obsolete. “There’re many countries in the world where the vaccine is produced for being very cheap. If stored, transported and used appropriately, it is very effective,” he said.
He, however, said that being a nerve cell vaccine, it might cause certain health complications.
Anwar said the NIH had planned to introduce cell culture anti-rabies vaccine gradually in its place. He said the cost of vaccine would certainly be as high as Rs 2,500 to Rs 2,750 per course. “This will be much cheaper than the imported cell culture vaccine,” he said.
ED denies anti-snake venom serum shortage