3,200 active Mucormycosis cases in Mah: State tells HC

Court seeks to know protocol to administer steroids during Covid treatment

The Maharashtra government, on Thursday, informed the Bombay High Court bench of Justices Amjad Sayed and Girish Kulkarni that there are over 3,200 active cases of Mucormycosis or Black Fungus in the state.

It also said that the infection is more severe than COVID-19. The bench was also informed that the distribution protocol was similar to Remdesivir and was controlled by the Central government. The HC ordered the State and Centre to take proper steps to provide Amphotericin-B, the drug used to treat the infection. It also ordered the Union government to spell out if there was any protocol to administer steroids, which is considered to be the cause of the infection.

Advocate general for Maharashtra Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the bench, "Black fungus is more severe than Covid. If a person doesn't get medicine on time, the person would be left with handicapped life-long." He said there was a “shortage” of Amphotericin-B as the manufacturing of the drug was low. It takes 20 days for the injection to be prepared. "We hope that the required medicines are supplied properly and maintained, especially in Pune, Satara etc where these cases are higher," Justice Sayed said. “We need at least 14,000 vials daily, but we are presently getting 4,000 to 5,000 vials from the Central government," submitted Kumbhakoni.

Maharashtra has declared Mucormycosis as a notified disease. Kumbhakoni also submitted that Haffkine Biopharma will produce over 40,000 vials by June 6 by the time other manufacturers too would have produced fresh lots of the medicine. "In fact, we are the first state across India to have started the inhouse manufacturing at Haffkine Biopharma,” said Kumbhakoni. Meanwhile, additional solicitor general Anil Singh appearing for the Central government informed the bench that the government had planned to import the drug which would land in India by the first week of June. "From May 11, we have supplied over 42,000 vials of the drug to Maharashtra. Total production in this period has been 80,000. As on date there are only seven companies producing the drug we have permitted another five," ASG Singh said.

Having heard the submissions, Justice Sayed said, "We are more worried because a person who never had Covid can also suffer from Black Fungus. This is a new infection that has come up." "Is there any protocol for this disease? Let there be a protocol as to at what point of time steroids are to be given and what quantity etc. You need to explore this," Justice Sayed told the central government.