Measles concerns: ‘Health Department officials stealing vaccine fridges’

Petitioner Bilal Yasin, a drug inspector from Ferozewala, submitted that he had been suspended from service for drawing attention to the theft of refrigerators provided by the UNICEF to store measles vaccines. Of the 81 refrigerators handed over to the Health Department in Sheikhupura, 36 had gone missing, said Yasin. He said that he had raided a site on a tip off and recovered four refrigerators from Vaccination Deputy Superintendent Ali Raza Gilani. Yasin said that he had lodged a complaint against Gilani and initiated a departmental inquiry against him.

However, Yasin said, Sheikhupura Health EDO Rana Rafique and Ferozewala Health Deputy District Officer Zulfiqar Butt had managed to have the inquiry dropped. He said that he was suspended from service for drawing attention to the theft of the refrigerators. Yasin said he was neither given a notice nor a chance to explain, as was procedure.

Yasin alleged that he had been victimised by those involved in stealing the refrigerators. “They were given to the department to store vaccine, but the vaccine has not been stored properly. This will hamper efforts to control the epidemic,” he said. He prayed to the court to set aside his suspension and direct the authorities to reinstate him.

The judge remarked that while on one hand children were dying of measles, on the other, officers were being picked on for taking action against officials involved in the theft of refrigerators.

According to official reports, more than 1,500 children are suffering from measles. As many as 129 children have died in the province so far.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of measles cases in Pakistan increased from 4,000 in 2011 to 14,000 in 2012.

As many as 306 children died of measles in the country last year, most of them in flood-stricken areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2013.