‘Everyone is living this hell’: HC on black fungus
Doctors said the 59-year-old man from Sanjay Nagar, also had aspergillosis (white fungus) and mucour scepticus (yellow fungus)
“We are living this hell. Everyone is living this hell. It’s a situation where we want to help but we are helpless,” the Delhi high court said on Friday, expressing its inability to help anyone approaching the court for the supply of Amphotericin-b, a medicine used for the treatment of mucormycosis, or black fungus infection.
The bench asked the Centre to submit a report on the imports of the medicine and asked how it was that the order to procure 230,000 vials of Amphotericin-b had not been received yet. “We are running against time. If you placed the order on May 24, today it should have been here…” the bench said. The court was hearing two petitions seeking medicine for black fungus patients admitted in Delhi hospitals.
GHAZIABAD: Ghaziabad on Friday registered its second death due to mucormycosis, commonly called black fungus, at a private hospital on Friday.
Doctors said the patient, a 59-year-old man from Sanjay Nagar, suffered from aspergillosis (white fungus) and mucour scepticus (yellow fungus) infections as well.
The man was admitted at Harsh ENT Hospital at Raj Nagar District Centre four days ago.
Dr BP Tyagi, senior ENT surgeon at the hospital, said, “He also suffered from diabetes and hypertension, and died in the morning.”
The first fatality in the district was that of a 57-year-old man from Ghaziabad’s Sihani area on May 20, who was admitted at the same hospital.
“Overall, we now have 34 active cases of black fungus. Another 22 patients who had the infection have been discharged so far,” said Dr NK Gupta, the chief medical officer of Ghaziabad.
Amphotericin B stock to be made available locally
Officials said they have asked for 670 doses of the antifungal injection amphotericin-b, used to treat black fungus, from the Uttar Pradesh Medical Supply Corporation (UPMSC) so that stock can be stored locally and available to patients in Ghaziabad, while health department officials in Gautam Budh Nagar said they already have limited stock stored locally.
“We’ve heard that families of patients who require amphotericin-b have had to run to procure it from the medical college at Meerut, after prior approvals,” said Dr Gupta.
“In case we get the stock, we will store it in the city for the convenience of patients. The stock will be procured through the assistant commissioner (drugs). The other drug used in treatment is posaconazole, which is in the form of injections as well as tablets, and is available readily.”
ENT Dr Tyagi and other doctors said that the drug was in short supply in Meerut as well, forcing people to hunt for the drug in other cities.
“It will be a great help if the injections can be stored in Ghaziabad
and an online approval from Meerut can be obtained for it. It will save families a lot of hassle,” said Dr VB Jindal, former president of Indian Medical Association, Ghaziabad chapter.
According to a state government order on May 19, the amphotericin-b injection is the drug of choice for black fungus treatment and is to be available in the open market. In case it is not, it will be made available to patients on application to commissioners of the divisions of Meerut, Agra, Varanasi and Lucknow.
The order also said that a three days’ dose of liposomal will be made available at one time at
a cost of ₹6,000 and ₹1,500 for an emulsion vial.
The government’s stock of amphotericin-b is supplied by the health department in Meerut to six districts under Meerut division, which include Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar.
Meanwhile, the health officials of Gautam Budh Nagar said that they have received a stock of 100 injections from Meerut and stored them locally.
“We started the arrangement on Thursday and the stock is available at the office of the chief medical officer in Gautam Budh Nagar. We had requested for the stock of 100 from Meerut and 70 of these were already given to patients. However, the approval for supply to patients is taken from authorities at Meerut. Now, the kin have been saved from the time spent travelling to Meerut,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, the chief medical officer of GB Nagar.
Officials said that Gautam Budh Nagar at present has about 60 active cases and two fatalities due to who suffered Covid were also found infected with black fungus.
Another official from the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration said that communication was sent to higher authorities keeping in mind the time spent by kin of patients to get the drug from Meerut.
“The government order says that the injections will be made available on approval by the commissioner (at Meerut). The issue had also been raised by residents’ welfare associations for supply of stock of Amphotericin B from Gautam Budh Nagar itself. So, we have written to the higher authorities if such a permanent arrangement can be made,” the official said, requesting not to be identified.
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