Shortage of Manpower, Equipment

Institute of Public Health limps along

27 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Mahbuba Zannat

Shortage of manpower and equipment and the indifferent attitude of the government have left the Institute of Public Health (IPH) limping along in recent years. The major role of the institute, established in 1963, is to improve the public's health through quality control of foods and drugs, production of biomedicals, and training and research, but its various units now could not carry out their activities properly due to lack of experts. The IPH has stopped producing tetanus, measles and diphtheria vaccines several years ago and its function to test food, water and drugs has been seriously hampered. It now only produces intravenous fluid, blood transfusion bags and rabies vaccine but cannot meet the annual production target. IPH Director Nurul Islam Prodhan said the institute stopped production of tetanus, measles and diphtheria vaccines after samples of a batch of vaccines had failed quality tests abroad. The World Health Organisation (WHO) sent the samples to India for tests. The country now has to import these vaccines spending a huge amount of money. The Anti-Sera Production Unit of the institute has remained closed for over two and a half years and the costly equipment are getting damaged, IPH sources said. Also, many modern equipment at its Food Testing Laboratory have been waiting to be installed for the last four years. . "At the Food Testing Laboratory, 107 food items can be tested. But we can't ensure the quality of testing as various modern equipment such as the atomic absorption machine, spectra photometer, gastro chromatography and SPLC machines are lying idle as they could not be installed due to lack of expert technicians," said Dr Abdur Razzaque Mia, deputy programme manager of Food Safety Programme. Currently some 95 posts are lying vacant against 926 sanctioned posts at the IPH. A letter was sent to the health ministry for manpower recruitment about two years ago, but no steps has been taken in this regard, said the official. "The IPH is one of the idle zones of the health sector. It has been neglected for years together and could not utilise its full potential," Dr Razzaque said, adding that the government is not paying proper attention to the institute due to low revenue earning from it. The Intravenous (IV) Fluid Production Unit of the IPH produces only 10 lakh bags of fluid a year, which is half the annual production target, whereas the domestic demand is 80 lakh bags. "If we had had generators to ensure uninterrupted production during loadshedding and enough manpower to run three shifts, the machines would have been utilised properly and the production would have increased at least three times," the director said, adding that the process of procurement of generator could not be completed in the last four years due to bureaucratic tangle. The institute is manufacturing 600 blood transfusion bags and sets daily against its capacity of 1200. The drug-testing lab also cannot work to its full potential due to lack of modern equipment, reagents and manpower. It can test only 4,300 samples a year, whereas the WHO said the lab should test 20,000 samples a year considering the volume of drugs in the country's market, the authorities said. During a visit recently, WHO representatives asked the authorities to modernise the Drug Testing Laboratory and suggested bringing it under the Directorate General of Drug Administration. The institute also had a credible history of producing small pox, cholera and typhoid vaccines to help prevent outbreak of diseases, which is virtually absent now. It has now been manufacturing Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) through Nerve Tissue Culture, which is an obsolete process, although WHO has asked the authorities at least three times to stop its production. "Public health issue cannot be neglected and the IPH can play a very important role in ensuring quality in health services. It could work better if the government pays a little more attention to it," said Habibur Rahman, a former deputy director of IPH. He also suggested that the government should take short-, medium- and long-term programmes for its development and the institute be brought under the Directorate General of Health Services.