Centre's allocation of black fungus drug irrational, supply to Maharashtra inadequate: HC

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the Union governments allocation of AmphotericinB a key drug used in the treatment of mucormycosis or black fungus appeared to be irrational and the supply to Maharashtra was not adequate considering the number of cases in the stateFlagging the same issue during the hearing of a different Public Interest Litigation another bench of the court said the Centre must take steps to increase the supplyAfter the state government informed that 82 people died of mucormycosis in Maharashtra in the last three days a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni at Mumbai asked Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to find out if delay in the administration of necessary drugs led to these fatalitiesIt also directed the Maharashtra government to maintain realtime record of mucormycosis cases and the available stock of drugs and convey this information to the Union government so as to procure the medicines in timeAlso read Centre issues guidelines for management of black fungus disease in children below 18 yearsKumbhakoni told the court earlier that while the state had witnessed 512 deaths due to mucormycosis till June 7 the figure climbed to 600 by June 10Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh the Union governments lawyer said it had allocated an average of 4060 vials of AmphotericinB a key drug used in the treatment of the fungal infection per day to Maharashtra between May 11 and June 9The bench however noted that Maharashtra accounted for 25 percent of the total 23254 cases in the country and the drug allocation was inadequate and not proportional to the number of active cases in the stateDaman and Diu had no active mucormycosis case but the Union Territory received 500 vials Tripura had one case but did not receive any vial while Manipur and Nagaland with one active case each received 50 vials of the medicine apiece the court said citing the Centres own affidavitThis allocation doesnt seem rational Are the medicines really reaching where they are required What is the distribution criteria the HC askedThe quantity of AmphotericinB allocated to Maharashtra is very short Allocation has to be dynamic and needbased panIndia No patient should suffer for want of medicine the court addedIf the domestic production was inadequate the government must think about importing the drug the court saidThe court was hearing a bunch of PILs on Covid19 management in MaharashtraAG Kumbhakoni also told the bench that Maharashtra had started vaccination against coronavirus in prisons to inoculate staff and inmates While most of the staff was vaccinated 27000 inmates were yet to be fully vaccinated he saidRTPCR tests were also being conducted frequently in jails he said adding that in Taloja prison near Mumbai which is highly congested there were only five active cases of Covid19The court said the state must not become complacent because of the decline in cases and must keep adequate stocks of Tocilizumab and other necessary drugsIt directed the state to file a fresh affidavit on all issues by June 15 adjourning the hearing to June 16Besides the principal bench at Mumbai the Aurangabad bench also raised the issue of shortage of mucormycosis drugHearing a PIL a division bench of Justices R V Ghuge and B U Debadwar said the shortage was worrisome and unless urgent steps were taken by the Union government for improving the supply the death rate would not come downIt expected the Union government to make a statement on June 16 about increase in the supply of the drug the court said while asking the chief public prosecutor the states lawyer to furnish details of recovered and active patients as well as deaths due to mucormycosis till June 15This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever