Indian Lab Suffers From Lack of Equipment |
21 May 2007 |
| The government-run Public Health and Drug Testing Laboratory in Dhaka has been suffering from manifold problems like lack of modern equipment, shortage of manpower for more than a decade. "To test drugs, vaccines, food, water, and sera, the laboratory uses most sophisticated machines that require central air-conditioning. But the laboratory housed on the second floor of the Institute of Public Health (IPH) building at Mohakhali is not centrally air-conditioned. For a smooth running of such a laboratory, it also needs protective netting to keep away dusts and insects," said an official of the laboratory. The laboratory also lacks modern equipment to test and identify substandard drugs, while various pharmaceutical companies in the country are producing and marketing substandard drugs, putting the public health in risk, he added. Two posts of chemists at the laboratory have been lying vacant for long. But these posts are vital for proper functioning of the laboratory. Now assistant chemists are acting as chemists, according to the source. Some 19 of the 63 employees of the laboratory had not been getting their salaries for the last three years, which was also hampering the laboratory works, he added. A government order to bring the 19 laboratory staff under the revenue budget has been pending for a long period with the Finance Ministry for approval, he stated. Abul Khayer, Head of the laboratory, said that the laboratory recently started using three modern equipment - automatic absorption spectrometres, high performance liquid chromatography and a gas tomography machines. These machines are used to detect the presence and measure the level of arsenic in water and formalin and artificial colouring in food items. But the number of employees, 12, trained to operate these machines is not enough, said an assistant chemist of the laboratory. |
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