Patients suffer as free rabies vaccine supply halts

The poor dog bite victims in and around Chittagong city visiting Chittagong General Hospital (CGH) for treatment have to dig into their own pockets as the hospital has stopped providing them with free rabies vaccine for the last 20 days due to the unavailability of supply.

The hospital authorities put up a notice on January 15 that reads the supply of rabies vaccines has stopped temporarily.

As a result, the poor patients are compelled to buy those from nearby drug stores. 

Five-year-old Sabbir from the city's Halisahar area was bit by a dog on Wednesday. He was taken to CGH on that day. But his father, a day-labourer, had to buy vaccine from a nearby drug store paying Tk 450.

Another dog bite victim, 40-year-old Mafizul Haque, a RMG worker, said he has heard that the CGH provides free vaccine.

But the hospital staff said they did not have the supply of vaccine, he said expressing his frustration. 

“I had to buy vaccine from outside…doctors said I will have to take four vaccines in total in a month,” he added.

Mentionable, in Chittagong, dog bite patients get free rabies vaccines only in CGH and the Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases at Faujdarhat in the district's Sitakunda upazila.

But patients prefer CGH as it is within the city and easy to reach, said sources in CGH, adding that around 40 dog bite victims take treatment in the hospital every day on an average.

Dr Daisy Barua, emergency medical officer of CGH, said they have not provided free rabies vaccine since January 15 as there is no supply.

Murshid Ara Begum, superintendent of the hospital, said they asked for 300 vaccines in January but got only 70.

Contacted, Azizur Rahman Siddique, civil surgeon of Chittagong, said the office of director general of health cannot supply adequate rabies vaccines to the general hospitals due to the scarcity of the medicine.

“The situation will change after a few months as the government has initiated to procure vaccines from abroad,” he said. Azizur said only district general hospitals provide free vaccines. 

“If we get adequate vaccines from the government, I will take an initiative to supply some vaccines to the health complexes of remote upazilas in the district,” he said.