50 amphotericin B injections available, 720 required: Red Cross
LUCKNOW Only 50 amphotericin B injections were available against the requirement of 720 when attendants of black fungus (mucormycosis) patients reached the Red Cross office here after getting approval from the Lucknow divisional commissioner.
“We have received 50 injections from the store under the chief medical officer of Lucknow, while the need is of 720 doses as sanctioned by your office for different patients. Attendants are standing outside the Red Cross office and we had to call police to handle the situation,” Indian Red Cross Society (Lucknow) chairman Om Prakash Pathak on Saturday said in a letter to the divisional commissioner.
Divisional commissioner Ranjan Kumar said, “I have not seen the letter from the Red Cross as I was in Kheri. The Red Cross has no means to assess the need, but is just a place for keeping the medicine while a committee is assessing the need and ensuring distribution of the medicine, and even today medicine was distributed.”
“The Red Cross Society has no role to play in deciding distribution of doses. It is a dynamic process and medicine is distributed as it comes on the decision by a committee of experts. That committee is working for the distribution of the medicine,” he added.
According to an order issued
by additional chief secretary (medical health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad on May 19, the Red Cross has been entrusted the task of distributing amphotericin B injections for black fungus patients admitted to private hospitals after approval from the committee. After sending the letter, the Red Cross waited for a day and finding no way out, they issued oneday dose instead of three-day doses to the attendants of patients. That too could not meet the need of even half of those on the waiting list. When asked about the situation on Sunday, Pathak said, “We took a call and decided that instead of issuing three- day doses, which is 18 injections, to each patient, we issued doses for one day only.” On Monday, attendants of these patients and others too would visit the Red Cross office, but the society is left with just two injections.“If someone asks, we may issue two injections also as it will be inhuman to keep them. But we don’t know how we will distribute any further doses to patients, while nearly threedozen applications are already pending with us,” said Pathak.
The amphotericin B injections are administered to black fungus patients. In view of the shortage of these injections, the health department had started an arrangement that medical colleges will get a separate stock. The patients admitted at private hospitals will be provided the doses via the open market or through the Red Cross society in four divisions of Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut. “Since the arrangement had been made in four divisions, hence Lucknow is getting applications from at least 10 districts. People from other districts are also standing in queue to get jabs,” said Pathak.