No anti-rabies drugs in Blantyre
Blantyre residents are at risk of dying from rabies following reports that the district health office (DHO) has no anti-rabies drugs.
Already, one casualty has been reported in Mdeka after the person failed to access treatment at a public health facility, district health officer Dr Owen Malema confirmed yesterday.
“We have had no supplies of anti-rabies medication at Blantyre DHO. Even at the Central Medical Stores Trust [CMST] they say they don’t have it. We are concerned that poor patients may be unable to get treatment and this poses great risk. Actually, one person died last week at Mdeka because he could not access it,” Malema told a district executive committee (DEC) meeting in Blantyre over the weekend.
Malema said a lot of dog bites incidents were happening in Blantyre, particularly involving children, but very few are being reported and treated.
But CMTS spokesperson Hebert Chandilanga wondered why the DHO does not have the medication when the trust has stocks.
He, however, said there might have been a few days’ when stock was pending quality control clearance with the Pharmacy, Medicines and Poisons Board when the DHO possibly placed an order.
Chandilanga also disclosed that there have been times when medication had to be transferred from one area with enough stock to supply other facilities in need of the medication.
Anti-rabies medication is one of the most expensive drugs and costs about K25 000 (about $65) per person per dose (five injections) in private hospitals. But the same is administered for free in public hospitals.
According to Blantyre district animal health and livestock development officer Stanford Muyila, there are about 74 000 dogs in Blantyre and as of last June 2014 only 13 400 had been vaccinated, representing an 18 percent achievement.
