Availability of antifungal med the issue, not its distribution: Delhi health min

Just like oxygen, the problem is not with the distribution but the supply of the anti-fungal medicine Amphotericin B used to treat patients with black fungus infection, said Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday

Just like oxygen, the problem is not with the distribution but the supply of the anti-fungal medicine Amphotericin B used to treat patients with black fungus infection, said Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain. (File photo)

“There is a shortage of the medicine across the country; the Centre has taken control of it and it is being allocated as per quota to states. Delhi has been allocated around 2,000 doses,” said Jain in a press briefing.

“Delhi had 197 people with the infection admitted to various hospitals till Wednesday night. Every patient needs several injections each day; if Delhi’s requirement is, say, 4,000 injections, and we are given 1,000, there will be a problem. It is similar to the oxygen situation; when Delhi needed 600 MT of oxygen we were given 300 MT and then people said that there was a problem in distribution.”

The Delhi government has set up a four-member committee that looks at hospitals’ demand for the drug after patient information is submitted and gives a go-ahead for the Directorate General of Health Services to dispatch it. As per submissions in the Delhi high court, every patient needs 42 vials of the injection per week.

Mucormycosis, which is referred to as Black Fungus, is an opportunistic infection which usually happens in Covid-19 patients with uncontrolled diabetes, especially if they have been given high or longer dose of steroids. If untreated, it kills up to 80% of the people and in others, it can lead to loss of eye or disfigurement of face as surgeons debride the dead tissue.

To prevent the infection, Jain said, “Please take steroids only on the advice of a doctor. Do not continue taking the medicine even after the doctor has stopped it. In some diabetics, the sugar level shoots up because of steroid use and they have to be prescribed injection insulin. But, they stop taking it once they are home. Please don’t do that. At the moment, controlling diabetes is more important, you will be able to get off the injection in a few days.”

He added, “People who have been administered steroids should be alert for up to a week after the medicine has been stopped. And, control the blood sugar level.”

The minister reiterated that the stock for vaccines for people between the ages of 18 and 44 years is almost exhausted and several centres would be closed Friday onwards.