An employee of the emergency department of Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital said, ”The situation is very serious. We do not have a single dose of the vaccine to be given to patients bitten by dogs. But we are strictly prohibited from speaking about it to the media.”
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A person has died of rabies in Chandragiri Municipality, Kathmandu. A 48-year-old man who was admitted to the Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital (Teku) after contracting rabies died on Saturday.
The man, who was bitten by a dog a few weeks ago, had not received the anti-rabies vaccine (ARV).
Doctors said the man died because the vaccine was not available at the local health facility and his family neglected him.
'We all thought that the vaccine was not needed because he was bitten by a small dog,' a health worker at Teku Hospital said, quoting a relative of the victim. 'If the vaccine had been available at the nearby health post, we probably wouldn't have lost him.'
Despite the acute shortage of rabies vaccines in government hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Food Security has imposed a strict ban on releasing information about this, officials said on condition of anonymity.
It is understood that the ministry has questioned and warned officials who spoke to the media about the vaccine shortage a few days ago. An employee of the hospital's emergency department said, 'The situation is very serious. We do not have a single dose of the vaccine to be given to patients bitten by dogs. But we are strictly prohibited from speaking about it in the media.'
Currently, rabies patients are forced to buy the vaccine from private pharmacies at high prices. Not only in Teku, but in most government health institutions across the country, there has been an acute shortage of rabies vaccines for the past few months.
Due to which, the lives of the general public have been at high risk. People can be protected from rabies by getting vaccinated on time. But doctors say that once symptoms appear, this disease is always fatal.
According to officials at Shukraraj Hospital, Teku, more than 500 dog-bite patients are now reaching the hospital daily for vaccination. Due to the lack of vaccination at district-level health institutions, patients have no option but to travel to Kathmandu or buy the vaccine at a high cost from private pharmacies.
Due to the acute shortage of vaccines, Teku Hospital had earlier demanded a quantity of vaccine from the Gandaki Province Government and Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
The hospital, which used to provide rabies vaccine 24 hours a day in the past, has now stopped the second dose of the vaccine given by the emergency department due to shortage. The hospital has started urging patients to come to the OPD for the second dose.
A regular four-dose course should be completed for rabies prevention. Each dose should be administered at the prescribed time. The working class is especially at risk of being bitten by street dogs because they have to move around during work.
Since private treatment is expensive, they are the ones who suffer the most when services are affected in government hospitals.
Rabies is a deadly viral disease. The disease is spread through the saliva of animals such as dogs and foxes infected with rabies. Almost all cases of rabies in Nepal are caused by dog bites.
In Nepal, more than 60,000 people are vaccinated against rabies annually from government health institutions alone, while thousands more receive treatment in private hospitals.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) target, Nepal has committed to reducing rabies caused by dog bites to zero by 2030.
But the Ministry of Health's own data shows that dog bites are increasing every year. According to official estimates, more than 100 people die of rabies in Nepal every year.
According to the WHO, one person dies of rabies every nine minutes worldwide, most of whom are children and the poor.
