Ensure availability of anti rabies vaccine, anti snake venom in PHCs: DPH

The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has instructed deputy directors of health services to ensure the availability of sufficient quantities of anti rabies vaccines (ARV) and anti snake venom (ASV) in primary health centres (PHC).

In a circular to all DDHS, he said very often, it was brought to the notice of the directorate that ARV and ASV were not kept adequately in the PHCs. During inspection of programme officers from the directorate, it was noticed that there was no sufficient stock of ARV and ASV in certain PHCs and remarks were made in the inspection report.

He said that repeated instructions were issued in the past that sufficient stock of medicines and vaccines particularly lifesaving drugs such as ARV and ASV should be kept in the PHCs to treat the affected persons without delay.

All DDHS were told to instruct the medical officers to ensure the availability of sufficient quantities of ARV (20 vials) and ASV (10 vials) in PHCs at any time. They were also told to forward the treatment protocols for the management of dog bite and snake bite to all PHCs for proper management of the conditions and instruct the medical officers to strictly follow the same.