LAHORE - A child died yesterday at Children’s Hospital due to the unavailability of life-saving anti-diphtheria serum (ADS). This is the second death reported in one month.
The hospital administration has confirmed the death of diphtheria patient Muhammad Nasim.
So far five children have lost their lives at Children’s Hospital since the provincial government had approached the health ministry with the request of importing ADS from Croatia about two months back, a government official told The Nation.
The number of diphtheria-related deaths in the province during the current year has reached 22, majority of these at Children’s Hospital.
As per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, a single confirmed case of diphtheria is suggestive of an outbreak. Diphtheria is a bacterial infection in the upper respiratory tract with high mortality rate. It is now rare in most of the developed countries.
The health department official said: “The government has not placed order of importing ADS and in the meantime existing stock ceased. Croatia is the only country producing ADS for the entire globe. “ADS is a costly drug with expiry only six month after manufacturing date. Since diphtheria is quite rare and drug is costly, it is not available in the open market. Only government purchases this drug that did not happen this year.”
Punjab may become polio-free: Punjab got all environmental samples negative for the first time this year, raising hopes of a polio-free province.
All environmental samples collected from sewerage of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and other targeted cities in October were tested negative by National Institute of Health. Previously, either Lahore or Rawalpindi, two major cities with huge number of migrants from FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Balochistan and Sindh were getting positive environmental samples.
Officials say introduction of injectable polio vaccine (IPV) in routine immunization and three extensive vaccination campaigns and catch up drives in sensitive areas have helped checking circulation of polio virus in sewerage.