BACOLOD City – The City Health Office (CHO) no longer has anti-rabies vaccines, said Nurse Gloria Parreño, a rabies coordinator in the city.
Parreño told media members this yesterday, reiterating that they still do not know when the anti-rabies shots would be restocked by the Department of Health (DOH).
She added that the CHO can no longer accommodate animal bite patients due to the unavailability of the vaccines.
But the health officer advised the patients to buy anti-rabies shots at the Riverside Medical Center pharmacy, the only pharmacy in Bacolod where the vaccines are available.
Parreño said she talked to a medical representative from Sanofi, one of the two companies supplying the Philippines with anti-rabies vaccines, that the stocks at the drugstore are limited to only 100.
Sanofi supplies the anti-rabies vaccine berorub to the country while the GlaxoSmithKline, the rabipur.
GlaxoSmithKline stopped sending rabipur to the Philippines on March last year after the Chinese government discovered bacterial residuein its vials.
Sanofi’s supply, on the other hand, is not enough to meet the demand in the country.
Meanwhile, City Veterinarian Ma. Agueda Trinidad De La Torre said the 4,000 anti-rabies vaccines from the Department of Agriculture(DA) have already arrived in the city.
It was not immediately clear where the DA sourced the vaccines.
Rabies is a serious public health problem in the country. The Philippines is among the top 10 countries with the highest incidence of rabies in the world.
DOH officials estimate that about 100,000 Filipinos are treated for dog bites and 200 to 300 die from rabies annually./PN