Staff Reporter
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services Regulation and Coordinationon Thursday was held at Parliament Lodges, Islamabad.
Chaired by Senator Khushbakht Shujat, the meeting was attended by Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, Senator Dr. Sikander Mandhro, Senator Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi, Senator Dr Asad Ashraf, Senator Kalsoom Parveen, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, Senator Syed Muhammad Ali Shah Jamot, Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, Senator Liaqat Khan Tarakai and senior officers from Ministry of Health along with all concerned. Federal Minister for Health, Dr. Faisal Sultan was also present.
The meeting commenced with a briefing of Secretary Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination and Executive Director National Institute of Health to brief the Committee regarding the issue of shortage of Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) in Punjab. The Committee was informed that the facility to manufacture ARV at the National Institute of Health (NIH) was established in the late eighties with limited design production capacity of 150000 doses per year. Since its inception NIH had been producing and supplying these doses all over Pakistan.
During the current Financial Year (FY) this Institute has produced more than 225000 doses of ARV that were supplied to the four provinces. In the year 2020-21 NIH is making all out efforts to for a further 200,000 dose production through its own resources. A comprehensive plan has been submitted to the Ministry for funding. This would enhance the production capacity upto 600000 doses per year; thus reducing the supply and demand gap. Members of the Committee stressed that the Government must take full responsibility of supplying vaccines to hospitals in the four provinces, since victims are usually the most vulnerable of society.
The Federal Minister for Health, Dr. Faisal Sultan informed the Committee, that catering to complete national need was beyond NIH’s production capacity. To maintain the supply of the vaccine beyond that is the responsibility of the provinces. The Committee stressed that timelines of vaccine production be shared with the Committee.
