DOH-Western Visayas provides anti-rabies vaccines for Bacolod

BACOLOD City Representative Greg Gasayata confirmed Thursday, May 3, that the Department of Health (DOH)-Western Visayas will provide more than 100 vials of anti-rabies vaccines for Bacolod.

Gasataya said DOH-Western Visayas informed him on May 2 that the anti-rabies vaccines are now ready for pick-up.

"I requested the DOH to prioritize Bacolod because we now lack of supply of anti-rabies vaccines. We really need these to accommodate the animal bite victims here," he said.

Dr. Diana Rose Laput, rabies coordinator of the City Health Office, earlier said that on February 12, the DOH issued a memorandum that there will be a delay in the delivery of Rabipur to regional offices and animal bite treatment centers for the second quarter of 2018.

She said the DOH purchased two types of intradermal rabies vaccines for the National Rabies Program that is pre-qualified by the World Health Organization, one of which is Rabipur.

The global supply for Rabipur is currently manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Ankleshwar, India.

Laput said in April 2017, the Chinese government discovered the presence of bacterial residues of more than 25 IU in their allotted supply.

"This finding prompted GSK to suspend immediately the release of Rabipur worldwide. The resumption date of manufacture is indefinite. Hence, GSK Philippines informed the DOH of the impact of this event on the delivery schedules for the DOH 2017 procurement," she said.

The shortage of rabies vaccines is not only in Bacolod City but also in other regions.

In 2017, Barangay Mansilingan has the highest record of animal bite victims with the total of 726, followed by Barangays Taculing and Villamonte with a total of 603 animal bite victims each, and Barangay Estefania, 553 victims.

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