LAST Saturday night a friend of mine was bitten by a stray dog near his house. He called me and I advised him to go to the Aga Khan Hospital as it is close to his home.

After a while he called me again saying the cost of vaccination at the hospital was Rs 80,000 and he couldn`t afford it.

I told him to wait at his home as I was coming to his rescue. I then took him to the Indus Hospital. We were told that they onlyvaccinate against rabies on week days in the OPD and advised us to come on Monday morning. We next went to Liaquat National Hospital`s emergency but unfortunately they didn`t have the anti-rabies vaccine.

Next I took him to the Civil Hospital and over there, too, we were informed that their dog-bites` department was closed on weekends and advised us to come on Monday morning.

Our next option was to search all the major medical stores for the vaccine. At last we were lucky to find the vaccine at a small medical store outside the Civil Hospital. I inoculated him with the first dose of the vaccine against rabies.

The moral of the story: Beware! Don`t get bitten by a dog on the weekends. The rich can afford inoculation on weekends while the poor will have to risk getting rabies.

I urge the chief minister and health minister to take notice? Dr Khurrum Fiazuddin Karachi