The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) on Monday gave the caretaker government a 72-hour deadline to comply with the Lahore High Court’s orders to make hospitals load shedding-free. Otherwise it would start a protest campaign.
The efficacy of the measles vaccine stored in Jinnah Hospital’s cold chain was suspect due to the long hours of load shedding, office bearers of the YDA said at a general council meeting.
The vaccine changed colour when it became ineffective, said a YDA member, the stock of vaccine in the cold chain had not entirely changed colour, however its efficacy had likely been affected. “This is because of protracted load shedding at the hospital,” he said.
“As many as 30 major surgeries get delayed at the hospital daily because of load shedding,” YDA Secretary Information Dr Khurrum Shehzad said, “Delaying major surgeries could lead to lifelong disability in the patients. We cannot operate on them without electricity.”
YDA President Dr Javaid Aheer said, “We cannot have patients dying while we stand helpless because of load shedding. We have had several patients on ventilators lose breath while their relatives try desperately to maintain their breathing in some way.”
He said the YDA feared that the hospital’s arrangements for maintaining the cold chain during long bouts of load shedding might not be enough. The vaccine might no longer remain effective, he said.
“11 children died of measles in the city on Monday, taking the number of deaths to 120,” he said, “This is a failure on the government’s part. We told the government to initiate a vaccination campaign against measles when an outbreak occurred in Sindh. No one paid heed then. Today we are losing our children to a preventable disease.”
Shabbir Chaudhry, a senior member of the YDA General Council, said the measles outbreak was a bigger problem than the dengue fever. “We congratulate Shahbaz Sharif for being nominated chief minister and demand that he declare an emergency to tackle measles.” He said that high dependency units (HDUs) should be set up at all public hospitals and the vaccine procured for the entire province. “Immunisation has only been carried out in Lahore. That is too little too late,” he said.
Expanded Programme on Immunisation Director Tanveer, talking to The Express Tribune, rejected the YDA’s claims regarding diminished efficacy of the vaccine. “We have backup generators for all cold rooms where the vaccine is stored in all hospitals. The mechanism keeps the vaccine safe for up to 18 hours. The criteria we use to determine the efficacy of vaccine is used and accepted all over the world. Thus there must be no doubt regarding the efficacy of the vaccine,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 28th, 2013.