MITHI, March 18: There was an acute shortage of anti-snake venom in health centres of the district, sources told this correspondent on Wednesday. The sources said at least 14 snake-bite cases were brought to the civil hospital Mithi from March 9 to 16.

They said the district was supplied with ASV irregularly in a meagre quantity as a result hospitals run short of it frequently. EDO health Dr Nawaz Kalar said only one vial of ASV was available with the district health department.

District council Tharparkar members Mohan Lal, Allah Warayo and Bhero Lal said strange was the fact that there was an acute shortage of anti-snake venom but the high-ups of health department were not paying any attention to such a serious issue.

They appealed to President Gen Parvez Musharraf to take notice of the situation and direct the relevant quarters to supply an adequate quantity of ASV to the hospitals to avert the loss of lives.

If the position remained the same and the ASV was not provided on war-footing then the human lives could be lost due to non-availability of the ASV, they said.