Black fungal disease: Kanimozhi urges Union ministers to ensure availability of drugs

CHENNAI: DMK Lok Sabha member Kanimozhi on Thursday urged Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda (chemicals and fertilizers) and Harsh Vardhan (health and family welfare) to take necessary steps to ensure the availability of drugs to treat mucormycosis or black fungal disease during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
In separate letters, Kanimozhi said mucormycosis infection is on the rise recently and predominantly affects patients who are recovering from Covid-19.
“The supply of antifungal drugs liposomal amphotericin B or amphotericin B, used in treating mucormycosis is declining and are increasingly difficult to obtain all over the country, and we will be needing this medicine in large quantities. In this scenario, I request you to make an urgent intervention to increase the supply of these drugs all over the country and also to Tamil Nadu, where there is acute shortage of this drug,” Kanimozhi said in her letters to the two ministers, as chairperson of the standing committee on chemicals and fertilizers.
She also requested them to take necessary action to increase the production of these vital drugs by allowing the companies to import the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) required for making these drugs without any bottlenecks.