Teku Hospital has brought a few hundred vials of vaccine from Gandaki and Bagmati provinces. It has also sought support from Kathmandu Metropolitan City and UNICEF.
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Rewant Khatri of Melung Rural Municipality in Dolakha was on his way to work from home in the third week of Jestha. He went to a nearby shop as he planned to take lunch with him for the afternoon. A dog near the gate suddenly bit him. Khatri, who was on his way to work, remembered a similar incident that had happened in his village a year ago. At that time, the person he knew who was bitten by a dog had gone to a private clinic and got vaccinated. But the vaccine was not against rabies and the person lost his life. Remembering this incident, Khatri did not go to work and went to the district government hospital. When the health workers there said that there was no vaccine, he came to the Shaheed Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Teku, Kathmandu. This is just one representative incident. There is an acute shortage of rabies vaccine not only in districts outside Kathmandu but also in government health institutions in the Kathmandu Valley. ‘The government hospital said there was no vaccine,’ Khatri said, ‘I hurriedly came from Dolakha and got vaccinated on Jestha 22.’ The government has not been able to supply the vaccine against the deadly disease rabies even after 2 months.
Teku Hospital has brought a few hundred vials of vaccine from Gandaki and Bagmati provinces. It has also sought help from Kathmandu Metropolitan City and UNICEF. The government has been purchasing 300,000 vials of rabies vaccine every year and distributing it free of cost through government health institutions. However, the contract for the vaccine, which should have been awarded in Chaitra and the procurement process should have started, was called for the third time in the last week of Jestha.
We have spoken to patients who have not received the vaccine at Teku Hospital in other districts. Similarly, we have sought answers from the hospital administration about the procurement process and supply efforts. Dr. Dipesh Archay has given suggestions on the treatment process of rabies disease and the complications that can occur if the vaccine is not administered.
