OKARA, July 20: No state-run hospitals in the Okara district have possessed with the anti-rabies vaccine for more than a year forcing the victims to purchase the costly vaccine from the market.

DHQ Hospital medical superintendent Dr Nazir Hussain said an official had been sent to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, for getting anti-rabies and snake bite vaccines. But the institute had provided only the snake bite vaccine while anti-rabies vaccine was still in short supply there. The MS said that since the NIH was the only institute in the country which was preparing anti-rabies vaccine, it could not meet the countrywide demand.

“We have been awaiting the vaccine for more than a year and we cannot say with any degree of certainty as to how long we have to wait further,” he said.

The MS said the NIH was still preparing decades-old version of vaccine which required at least 14 injections for the treatment of a dog-bite victim.

He said the vaccine available in the market needed no more than eight injections while the superior quality of vaccine required only five injections.

Dr Hussain said that each injection of the superior quality of vaccine was available at Rs1,000 while the price of each injection of low quality was Rs500.