Perhaps, the most useful medicine in flood-hit areas is paracetamol. Though it is primarily used as a cold or flu medicine, it is also useful in cases of dengue and other viral infections, because it is an anti-pyretic, which controls symptoms and thus allows the patient to recover without the danger that high-grade fever can bring.
Unfortunately, the floods coincided with the most popular formulation, Panadol, going off the market, after a pricing dispute with the government ending with the manufacturers deciding to stop making it, as it did not make economic sense to keep making it at the price the government allowed.
True, paracetamol has not disappeared off the shelves, being available in other formulations manufactured by other pharmaceutical firms, but the facilities available for the manufacture of these pills cannot be ramped up to meet the suddenly increased demand, which will be pushed up further by the coming winter.
This is not the first time the government has failed to ensure the supply of an essential. Every Ramazan and Eid, prices of foodstuffs go up. The example of petrol prices is to hand, with an increase coming at a time when international prices are falling, so that the government can get the difference.
The government should have ensured the availability of Panadol, either by subsidizing its manufacture, or by obtaining supplies at least for itself, at an economic price for the manufacturer. There is too disturbing a trend of official neglect of citizen’s needs to be ignored.
The assumption by the constituents of the government machinery, both elected and permanent, that the citizenry exists to provide them with their perks, must come to an end, and be placed by the view that they exist to provide that citizenry a better life.
