Islamabad: The ministry of national health services, regulations and co-ordination on July 25 Thursday announced to expedite production of anti-snake vaccine and pledged to supply the same to the country’s hospitals by September this year. According to a spokesman of the ministry, the decision was taken in response to a news item published in The News on July 24 Wednesday, which stated that NIH is supplying ineffective non-registered anti-snake vaccine threatening the lives of thousands of snakebite victims.
The spokesman said the existing trivalent vaccine (which does not cure victims of the Krait species of snakes) will also be registered by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) within a couple of days before its supply to various parts of the country. “The vaccine being currently produced by the NIH covers 3 major species of snakes found in Pakistan; Cobra, Russell’s viper and Saw scaled Viper. The production of vaccine covering 4 species shall be made available in September,” he said. |
