COVID-19 SHORTAGES SPUR BLACK MARKET FOR DRUGS AND OXYGEN
‘PHARMACY OF THE WORLD’ UNABLE TO MEET DEMAND FOR ANTIVIRAL MEDICATION
Several states are locking down, but only for 3 or 4 days or a week. I think a 15-day lockdown is a must if we really want to control the infection rate.”
Prashant Khadayate | Pharma Division Head, Globaldata Plc, Hyderabad
One solution to this crisis was to create a stockpile of antiviral drugs when cases were low, but that did not happen.”
Raman Gaikwad | infectious diseases specialist at Sahyadri Hospital in Pune.
“Right now there are no beds, no oxygen. We let our guard down too early, opened up. We really didn’t prepare in the time we got. As a result, the healthcare system is severely short-staffed right now.”
Shahid Jameel | Viroogist and Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University
“We were always expecting India to be one of the most severely hit countries because of its size, number of people and poor medical infrastructure. It always looked to be a time bomb.”
As Poonam Sinha fought for her life, her distraught son found himself fending off black marketeers for coronavirus drugs after the hospital treating her ran out of supplies.
Dire medicine and oxygen shortages as India battles a ferocious new Covid-19 wave mean boom times for profit gougers.
In Patna, Pranay Punj ran from one pharmacy to another in a frantic search for the antiviral medication remdesivir for his seriously ill mum.
Nightmare begins
He finally located a pharmacist who said the drug could only be found on the black market, and offered to source it for an eye-popping Rs100,000 ($1,340), over 30 times its usual price and three times the average monthly salary for an Indian white-collar worker.
Punj instead got the medicine from a distant relative whose wife had just died from the virus. But the nightmare was only beginning.
In the middle of the night, he got a call informing him that the hospital had now exhausted its stock of oxygen, making his mother’s condition even more precarious. “Several hours later, we managed to procure one bed at [a] very high price in a private hospital,” he said.
Oxygen supplies
Professor Nikolai Petrovsky | College Of Medicine And Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide
Similar heart-rending scenes are unfolding across the country, with desperate people taking to social media to beg for beds, oxygen or medication.
Despite itss status as the “pharmacy of the world”, India has been unable to meet the demand for antiviral medication such as remdesivir and favipiravir. In Lucknow, Ahmed Abbas, 34, was charged Rs45,000 for a 46-litre oxygen cylinder, nine times its normal price.
New Delhi is now planning to import 50,000 tonnes of oxygen and has set up a special train service called the ‘Oxygen Express’ to transport cylinders to hard-hit states.
“One solution to this crisis was to create a stockpile of antiviral drugs when cases were low, but that did not happen,” said Raman Gaikwad, an infectious diseases specialist at Sahyadri Hospital in Pune.
Instead, remdesivir manufacturers told the Indian Express this week that government officials had ordered them to cease production in January because of a fall in infections.
With requests for beds and supplies reaching fever pitch on social media platforms, a network of activists and influencers has sprung into action to help those in trouble.
Real-time desperation
Climate activist Disha Ravi and YouTuber Kusha Kapila are among the dozens of young Indians who have sourced, compiled and shared information detailing the real-time availability of hospital beds, local helplines, pharmacy numbers and even food delivery services.
Content creator Srishti Dixit, 28, said she received a new request for help every 30 seconds, creating a huge backlog.
Unpaid, she works late into the night, editing and verifying details of where to get what and amplifying requests for help.
But the lists she shares with her 684,000 Instagram followers becomes obsolete almost immediately as beds fill up and pharmacies sell out.
“We cannot rule out the role of more infectious variants in different parts of the country. In most samples in Punjab, the UK variant is isolated, while ‘double mutant’ strain is mostly prevalent in Maharashtra.”
Giridhar Babu | Professor of Epidemiology, Public Health Foundation of India
“Once the cases from the first wave began dropping and reached a low, there had been an overwhelming feeling among the general public that the worst was behind and they were out of danger.”
Prof Rijo M. John | Health Economist, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kerala
“There is a fear among doctors. In many cases, the condition of Covid-19 patient deteriorates quickly, leading to sudden death. Family members or relatives do not realise the problem, and blame doctors and hospitals.”
Dr Kirit Gadhvi | President, Ahmedabad Medical Association