ATTENTION is drawn to a serious public matter calling for immediate remedial measures. Thyroxin tablet is used to compensate for the malfunctioning thyroid glands. These glands in their place monitor the balanced growth of the entire mental and physical health of human body.

Any weakness or shortcoming in the performance of these glands seriously retards the productivity of an otherwise normal human being. At time the problem aggravates when some babies miss these glands by birth.

If this deficiency is detected right at that stage, then the mental or physical loss could be avoided by administering the drug there and, then, otherwise the child could end up in getting crippled; a miserable life to come.

The tablets, therefore, play a fundamental role in helping patients lead a normal life with dysfunctional or nil thyroid glands.

There are hundreds and thousands of such patients in Pakistan. A family of one of my close relatives is suffering from this syndrome where two members are without thyroid glands by birth.

A packet of thyroxin tablet was selling at Rs5 per 100 tablets a few years back. A couple of months ago the price was Rs 30 per packet with the tablets decreased much less than one hundred.

Now the medicine has been absent from the market for the last three months. There has been occasional shortages in the past but sorted out by calling the medicine from other cities.

Now the situation is alarming. For the last three days I have been exploring the markets of Rawalpindi and Islamabad but I failed to find the drug at any store.

Everywhere I was given one grim reply: “The company has stopped manufacturing the drug for the last three months for reasons best known to them.”

I have sent SOS calls to my friends in other cities but to no avail. The imported drug available in certain upmarket outfits in the capital sells at much higher price: Rs500 to Rs600 a packet, beyond the means of a household where average six to eight tablets are consumed daily.

I appeal to federal and provincial secretaries and director-general of health to immediately impress upon the above-mentioned pharmaceutical company to manufacture thyroxin tablets onan emergency basis. There should also be a price regulating mechanism for this life-saving drug.

MUHAMMAD SALEEM Rawalpindi