Rabies vaccines scarce for Ctg division poor

Poor dog bite victims in rural areas of Chittagong division have to travel all the way to the port city because only two hospitals there provide free rabies vaccines.

There were cases where the family of the patient could not afford the travel or vaccine costs and turned to local shamans for "treatment".

"Thus they make a grave mistake," said Dr Rupa Dutta, a medical officer at Chittagong General Hospital (CGH), one of the two state-run healthcare facilities giving free rabies vaccines.

She saw patients die because of not taking the vaccine on time.

Rabies is a 100 percent vaccine-preventable disease, but fatal in all almost cases if the patient shows symptoms, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Chittagong Civil Surgeon Dr Sarfaraj Khan Chowdhury said neither Chittagong Medical College Hospital nor the upazila health complexes, numbering 14 in Chittagong district, did have free rabies vaccines.

Dr Rupa cited at least two cases, one of a 60-year-old woman of Bandarban and the other of a seven-year-old girl, where the patients could not be saved because they had turned to local shamans.

As rabies mainly occurs in poor communities, according to WHO, the absence of the immunisation service at upazila hospitals appears to be a drawback in the country's healthcare system.

A salesman in Boalkhali upazila, Pankaj Barua, had to take one day's leave and travelled to the general hospital to have his daughter immunised.

CGH vaccinates 10 patients on average daily, and sometimes the number goes up to 30, said Dr Rupa.

Jhantu Rudra, a farmer of Satkania upazila, got his son vaccinated at CGH free but at CMCH he would have to pay Tk 600 for each of the four vials required.

Dr Anu Sen Das, another medical officer of CGH, said about two lakh people were bitten by dogs, cats and foxes annually in the country; of them 2,000 contacted rabies.

He said vaccines must be taken as soon as a person came under attack by these animals.

If the victim washes the wound by soap or antiseptic, 70 percent of germs are destroyed, and then s/he should take the vaccine, he told The Daily Star.

The physician said symptoms started with fear of water, fear of flying alongside fever and abnormal behaviour, adding that they usually showed within 10 days to three months but in some rare cases, they might appear in seven days or after two years.

Dr Alauddin Majumder, director (health), Chittagong Division, said rabies vaccines were free in all district general hospitals of the country but not in the upazila health complexes.

Civil Surgeon Sarfaraj said he had written to the health ministry requesting it to make anti-rabies vaccines available at all upazila heath complexes of Chittagong to serve the poor.

The other government hospital providing free rabies vaccines in the region is the Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Faujdarhat.