Verorab unregistered rabies vaccine.

[Snowy79]

I was having a discussion yesterday with a paramedic friend of mine about the standard of health care here and as expected it was getting a fair old slating.  I told him I was 3 injections into an anti rabies course and that to take no chances I went to the local animal bite centre.

This morning out of curiosity as I figured I was getting hit with white nose tax I looked up the cost of Verorab.  The first thing that appeared was a warning from the Dept of Health saying it was oulawed here as the vaccine has fallen off of the back of a lorry and anyone caught administering it will be severly punished.

I'm off to the clinic now with a print out. Stand by.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Snowy79

[Jack Peterson]

7 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

and as expected it was getting a fair old slating. 

 

[Snowy79]

Lots of back tracking and assurances that the batch they have is 100% genuine but they couldn't understand why the Department of Health letter said it was banned as their drug had all the correct markings etc. I asked them if they'd ever bought a Chinese Iphone and did it have counterfeit written on it or were the markings identical to the original?

I took the batch sticker off of their vaccine and will have it checked with the D of H.

[Jack Peterson]

16 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

I took the batch sticker off of their vaccine and will have it checked with the D of H.

Hmmmmmmmmm  Not sure I would have done that, I think better to take the Phile/box complete, you know where we are and I would hate to hear they said that you had compromised things by taking the batch label off

 Just my Thoughts my Friend 

[Snowy79]

5 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

Hmmmmmmmmm  Not sure I would have done that, I think better to take the Phile/box complete, you know where we are and I would hate to hear they said that you had compromised things by taking the batch label off

 Just my Thoughts my Friend 

There was no more vaccines in the box.  They couldn't get the point that just because it was labelled doesn't mean it's genuine.  I let them take a note of the batch number as they hadn't been writing it on my vaccination card and had my partner and two other patients as witnesses.I have the card with the nurses signatures on it over the batch sticker.

One nurse showed me a folder from a rabies course she was on a few weeks back with hand outs issued by the Department of Health contradicting their own policy. There was no official letter head on the notes though, and knowing that in the Philippines the left hand sometimes doesn't know what the right hand is doing I figure as it could save lives it's better to get the answers from the policy makers. 

[bastonjock]

Is rabies a big problem in the Phil's ?

[Clermont]

I'm just going through all my vaccines for the shift over and been advised that one of the vaccines that is most relevant is the rabies one. But I didn't ask, is it a once off vaccination or do you need a top up each year or a boaster every couple of years ? 

[Medic Mike]

We don't have rabies on Oz, however I was in Iraq for 2 tours last year with United nations, and the current does we give them there is one dose stat, and the second one a week later.

[Mike J]

4 hours ago, bastonjock said:

Is rabies a big problem in the Phil's ?

Yes it is.  So many dogs that run free and have never had their rabies shots.  

http://www.wpro.who.int/philippines/areas/communicable_diseases/rabies/continuation_rabies_area_page/en/

Rabies in the Phillippines
Rabies continue to be a public health problem in the Philippines. The country is one of the top 10 countries with rabies problem. It is responsible for the deaths of 200 to 300 Filipinos per year. In 2010, 257 died of rabies, and in 2011, 202 deaths were reported.

WHO: Philippines
At least 1/3 of deaths due to human rabies are among children less than 15 years old. Animal bite cases has been increasing for the past 5 years. At least 328,459 persons in 2011, and 266, 220 individuals in 2010 were bitten by animals. Almost half of rabies exposures are among school children. Dogs remain the principal cause of animal bites and rabies cases.

Region 5 has 26 rabies cases in 2011, the highest among the regions. Bukidnon registered 13 cases, the highest among the provinces in the country.

WHO supported Region 5, in partnership with the Department of Education, in continuing its initiatives to include rabies program activities in their elementary school curriculum. The region has developed the teaching materials, as well as the monitoring and evaluation tools to assess the practices of school children, teachers and the community.

The Province of Kalinga was also supported by WHO. All mayors were provided with orientation and advocacy to implement mass dog vaccination, with the goal of eliminating rabies in both men and animals.

[Snowy79]

4 hours ago, bastonjock said:

Is rabies a big problem in the Phil's ?

I'm afraid it is and having gone into the Acute Care Centre to kick a stink up they admitted there is a shortage of anti rabies vaccine.  Some areas have none at all.

About 10 mins after I had a scratch from a dog tooth while play fighting a program came on the TV highlighting how bad rabies is here.  It can lay dormant for up to one year and is pretty much a death sentence and not a nice one at that.  The program showed a patient tied to a bed in what looked like a prison cell but was a hospital room for rabies patients.  They explained that the patient can be fully aware they have it and hold a conversation with you but feel 100% OK so plead to be untied.  Next minute they go crazy and start thrashing and trying to hurt themselves.  The guy in the program was talking to his son and begging to be untied as he felt OK.  He died within 6 hrs.

A big issue with the death rate here is the locals trust the village witch doctor before they will spend a peso on treatment.  They have a team going around trying to convince the witch doctor to tell the victim to seek medical treatment after seeing them but you can imagine how that's going to work out.  One was explaining that to treat it you take a branch from a mountain tree and shave part of the bark off and brew a tea with it.  Unfortunately everyone she had told to take this treatment had died as they never followed her instructions properly.