Hospitals in Pune and some nearby districts in Maharashtra have started reporting shortage of Amphotericin B (Ampho-B), a drug which is being used to treat patients of Black fungus infections.
Reports suggested that the doctors are admitting five to seven patients per day at a multispecialty hospital for the treatment which has led to an acute shortage of this expensive drug used to treat the rare fungal infection.
Rohit Karpe, treasurer of the Association of chemists in Pune district said the demand for Liposomal Amphotericin B has shot up due to covid-affected mucormycosis. He told that there would be a requirement of up to 100 vials per month prior to Covid-19 usually in any hospital while the consumption per patient is up to 120 vials.
Presently the demand has shot up to 1000-1500 vials from hospitals to various distributors in Pune district. Kapre said that they were informed that production would be enhanced by companies like Cipla, Bharat Serum, SunPharma, and Mylan.
Dr. Parikshit Gogate, consulting ophthalmologist who treats black fungus patients at Ruby Hall clinic, D.Y. Patil medical college and hospital said Amphotericin B is needed for almost two weeks. This was a drug that was rarely used as we often had only one or two patients in a year. Hence this drug was not produced a lot.
The drug costs approximately Rs 7500 per bottle and a patient may need ten per day and may have to use it for six weeks minimum and there are some patients using it for six months too, says Dr. Aditya Kelkar, director at National Institute of Ophthalmology.
The state FDA has been monitoring the availability of this key drug which has started becoming scarce.
Mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, can turn dangerous if left untreated, doctors said on Friday amid reports of re-emergence of the rare deadly fungal infection among Covid-19 patients across hospitals in Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad.