Daltonganj Health Centre Lacks Anti-Rabies Vaccines, Dog Bite Victims Face Travel Woes

Daltonganj: The primary health centre, Ayushman Arogya Mandir, at Satbarwa in Palamu district has been out of anti-rabies vaccines for the past two weeks.Officer in-charge of the centre, Dr Jairam Singh, said, “We have been out of anti-rabies vaccines for the last 10 to 12 days. We informed the authorities for vaccine supply, but to no avail.”On Monday, around a dozen people reportedly fell victim to stray dog bites.“We advised the victims to go to either Manika in Latehar or MMCH, Daltonganj,” he added.The Manika Community Health Centre is located about 15 km from Satbarwa, while MMCH Daltonganj is nearly 27 km away. “Asking victims to travel such long distances in an emergency, especially amid a cold wave, is inhuman,” said a patient.Civil surgeon Dr Anil Kumar Srivastava said, “I came to know about the non-availability of anti-rabies vaccines on Monday night. Arrangements are being made to dispatch the vaccines to the Satbarwa centre at the earliest.”Anti-rabies vaccination is administered in five doses on days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 28, with day 0 being the first dose.