Pakistan: Leishmaniasis Outbreak
Published: April 16, 2018
SHABQADAR/PESHAWAR: There has been an outbreak of Leishmaniasis, or skin ulcers, in the Mohmand agency, local officials have confirmed.
However, despite allocating fund and providing vaccination, the area
health officials claim they do not have even a single vaccination dose
available. The outbreak was confirmed by Mohmand Political Agent Wasif
Saeed in a post on microblogging website Twitter and on the social
network Facebook.
Admitting that it was a disease he had never heard of before, Saeed
wrote that he had received complaints on the social network about
leishmaniasis from different parts of the agency. He added that the
agency’s health centres did not have the vaccine for the disease — which
is spread through the bite of sandflies.
“I asked the agency surgeon (top health official) to arrange the
requisite vaccine and conduct an emergency administration of the vaccine
to the infected patients,” the political agent wrote. As a result,
Saeed said that he had to ask the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(Fata) Health Services Department as well as World Health Organisation
(WHO) officials for help to tackle the epidemic.
Following the requests, the Fata Health Services provided Mohmand
health officials with 250 vials of the vaccine on an emergency basis.
These vials, Saeed wrote, allowed them to conduct a vaccination
campaign. “Fifty patients treated today including three Afghan
refugees,” Saeed wrote on the account on Sunday while posting a picture
of some children who received the vaccine.
He added that vaccines were administered in the Prang Ghar and Ekka
Ghund tehsil while vaccination in the remaining basic health units
(BHUs) were are underway.
Assistance ‘not on record’
Despite the fact that there is a section in the annual development
programme dedicated for procuring vaccines against Leishmaniasis and
around 1,000 sets of vaccines from the WHO were transferred to the
health directorate for Fata, the directorate claims it does not have
even a single dose.
The issue surfaced when the political administration at Mohmand
agency sought immediate vaccination against an outbreak of the disease
on Sunday. “The political administration issued directions for carrying
out vaccination. However, we were shocked to learn that not even a
single dose was available,” a senior official at Fata Health Services
Directorate told The Express Tribune.
The official, who requested anonymity keeping in view gravity of the
issue, stated that WHO had already provided 1,000 injections of the
vaccine to the directorate but the vaccines were not used.
Moreover, the official said that there was no record of where the
vaccines had been used before. “I was told that there was a
fully-fledged ADP-funded programme under the health sector being
executed by the Fata health services directorate. However, until this
day, no vaccine was received by the [Mohamand] Agency,” Saeed wrote on
the Mohmand Agency Political Administration’s official page.
“On Saturday, we received a batch of around 250 injections and
distributed them to 150 to health facilities,” Saeed said, adding that
10 wen to the BHU in Lakarro, 15 to the Rural Health Centre in
Yakkaghund, 50 to the BHU in Nawe Kalle Prang Ghar and 75 to the Agency
Headquarters Hospital Ghallanai in Mohmand agency.
Fata Health Director Dr Jawad Habyib could not be reached for an
official version on the mismanagement despite repeated calls made to
him. Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1686582/1-leishmaniasis-outbreak-mohmand-scrambles-arrange-vaccination/" rel="nofollow - https://tribune.com.pk/story/1686582/1-leishmaniasis-outbreak-mohmand-scrambles-arrange-vaccination/
------------- How do you tell if a politician is lying? His lips or pen are moving.
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