Snakebites in Odisha claim more lives than malaria. A Government, which spends hundreds of crores of rupees on public health disorders, ironically, does not find enough anti-venom serums (AVS) for its hospitals where 296 people fell prey to the lethal fangs last year.
The State is next only to West Bengal when it comes to snakebite deaths. But acute scarcity of AVS in hospitals across the State, including the medical colleges and district health care centres, has taken a heavy toll. Even the biggest Government sector healthcare centre, SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, has run out of stock of AVS for the last four days. Every day, SCBMCH needs about 200 to 300 vials of AVS.
The Capital Hospital here also is dishing out AVS with great economy since the stock is “extremely limited.” The scenario in coastal districts, where the snakebite incidence is higher, is worse.
The State Health Department’s drug purchase and tendering process taking inordinately long, the victims of snakebite are left to fend for themselves since AVS is not freely available in the market in the State. The price of the anti-venom toxins has doubled and this has further worsened the situation.
In June, the Department placed orders for 20,000 vials of AVS with Bharat Serums and Vaccines, but could get a consignment of about 6,000 vials only. “We need about 30,000 vials during the three monsoon months, but getting the entire stock has proved to be a tough ask,” Joint Director, State Drug Management Unit, Dr Nishikant Kar, points out.
The drug manufacturing companies are heavily dependent on snake venom from Africa where the collection seems to be dropping recently and this has led to scarcity and consequent price rise.
Problems had begun to surface since 2008 though. The Health Department got entangled in a legal battle with the SSIs, who were opposed to the condition of the former to purchase the AVS only from companies with a turnover of `10 crore. Some firms filed a case in the Orissa High Court, which imposed a stay.
The High Court stay was vacated by the Supreme Court in June this year and Health Department commenced its procurement process through the State Level Purchase Committee. But since it takes at least three months, the districts were asked to procure the drugs from approved suppliers in the open market, where the supply itself is low.
In the meantime, companies, which were in agreement with the Government and sold the medicines at old rates, stopped supply once AVS prices jumped. In June, when the Government bought 6,000 vials, it paid at the rate of `154. Now the current lot is being procured at `320 with an additional 5 per cent VAT.
“AVS comes as free government supply which is why drug stores don’t have it in high volumes. Now that Government supply is limited and drug companies cannot meet the demand, the problem has become acute. Added to the problem is the prices because of the scarcity of raw materials in international market,” said Choudhury Prabir Das of All- India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists.
However, the Health Department assures that the situation will ease beginning this weekend. Kar says a consignment of 10,000 vials has reached Bhubaneswar and districts have been asked to pick up their stock. By August first week, the centralised procurement through regular tendering process will start though it will still take the Department more than a month to get the stocks.
Comments
0 comment