Punjab facing acute shortage of medicines for treatment of mucormycosis

Bathinda/Jalandhar/Patiala/Amritsar: Surinder Kumar was operated on May 23 for mucormycosis (black fungus) and has been waiting since to get his first shot of Amphotericin B injection, vital for treatment of patients affected with the disease, leaving him and his family harried.
Like Kumar, there are 164 more patients infected with the disease as of May 26 who have either not been administered any dose of the life-saving injection or have given only a few shots. For the treatment of the infection, a patient requires around 60 injections over a period of one month.
The infection has so far claimed 23 lives and infected 188 people in the state. Of the total, the majority of the patients are those who were recovering from Covid-19 after being either put on steroids or on oxygen support for a long time.
Narrating her woes, Nikita Nandwani, daughter-in-law of Surinder Kumar who is admitted at Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (AIMSR), said: “A surgery was conducted in the evening of May 23 and injections were to be administered on May 24 but the hospital authorities told us that there is no supply of the injection and whenever they got the supplies only then the injections could be administered. We tried at many sources to get the injections but failed in it and are staying at the mercy of God.”
There are as many as 27 patients at AIMSR, which is the only institute in the Bathinda area to treat black fungus cases. The hospitals authorities on May 24 afternoon had written to Bathinda deputy commissioner and civil surgeon for the injections and even applied on the portal but the supplies had not reached till the evening of May 26.
Family members of another patient at the hospital, not keen to be identified, said, “We too are waiting endlessly for the injections.”
AIMSR medical superintendent Dr Avtar Singh Bansal told TOI: “There is a shortage of injections. We have written to authorities and have applied at the portal and hope to get supplies by late Wednesday night or Thursday morning.”
Diagnosed with the infection three days back, the family of Gurmej Singh, 71, admitted at a private hospital in Jalandhar, has been hunting for Amphotericin injections without any success. “We were given the prescription by the treating doctor on Monday but we could not get the injections. On Wednesday, we shifted him to another hospital where the treating doctor prescribed the same injection. I have been shuttling between the deputy commissioner’s office and concerned official of the health department but I have been told that it is not available,” said Gurmej’s son-in-law Hardeep Singh. “We have been told by the treating doctors that black fungus has attacked his eyes,” he said.
Jalandhar deputy commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said they got a supply of 20 injections late on Wednesday evening and the patient’s attendant could procure it now.
To overcome the shortage, managing director at Amritsar’s Hartej Hospital Dr H S Nagpal suggested that given the immediate need for the injections, the government should import the injections on priority to meet the requirements.
Around 20 vials were supplied to the government Rajindra hospital in Patiala while already the authorities have 40 vials allocated for the patients undergoing treatment in the hospital.
The vials of injection for the treatment of Mucormycosis is not available in the open market and are provided by the central government to the state which is supplied directly to the health facilities.
Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu maintained that the state had requested the central government to provide 15,000 doses but were supplied only around 1,000 vials which are not enough to even provide complete treatment to the existing number of infected patients.
“We are facing an acute shortage of medicine to treat patients infected with black fungus,” said Sidhu. Adding, he said that the government is in constant touch with the central government and demanding a supply of more doses of injection.
To assist the health facilities – both private and government, in treating infected patients, as a special group of experts formed by the state government that has framed a treatment protocol that has been shared with all the hospitals. Of the total cases of Mucormycosis, the majority have been reported from private hospitals.
This committee has also been entrusted with the responsibility of rationalising the distribution of injections to the hospitals which require them on priority for treating the patients.