Black fungus: It’s a race against time as Delhi hospitals starved of key drug

NEW DELHI: For five days now, entrepreneur Amit Bhardwaj has been waiting for his wife to be administered Amphotericin B, a drug used to treat black fungus infection. Bhardwaj’s wife was admitted to Max Hospital in Saket on May 6 following a positive test for Covid.
Speaking to TOI, Bhardwaj said, “After she contracted black fungus, we arranged for Amphotericin B on May 16. She underwent surgery for the infection, but on May 17, I was told the government had put a control system in place and we couldn’t buy the drug like we did earlier.From May 17 till Friday we haven’t got the drug. I am too scared to try getting it from other sources because I can’t be sure if it is fake.”
The exasperated Bhardwaj said, “I don’t think the government’s regulatory system is helpful in any manner. When a patient has to wait for five days for the drug, who will take responsibility if anything goes wrong? The approving panel meets four times a day, but what’s the use when they haven’t approved of my wife’s need for five days? If there is a shortage of the drug, then we should be told about it. There need to be other channels to procure it.”
On Friday, TOI had reported about the shortage of Amphotericin B. At least 12 patients have died due to mucormycosis in the city.
Delhi government acknowledged the shortage of the drug. In a statement, health minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday, “There is scarcity of black fungus medicine in the entire country, including Delhi. This drug is under the control of the central government and they are supplying it according to the states’ quotas.” Jain added that most black fungus patients were those discharged from hospital after Covid treatment.
Reminiscent of the recent experience of desperate people seeking leads on oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and retrovirals like Remdesivir, people are now posting frantic pleas on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter on ways to procure Amphotericin B. Many patients stated that the hospitals they were admitted in hadn’t received supplies from the government.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, which has around 70 black fungus patients, had applied for Amphotericin B for 23 patients, but the government released the drug only for seven, a hospital official claimed. At Max, Saket, a senior doctor who did not wish to be identified, claimed, “In the last two days, we have not received any supplies of the drug and are instead giving Posaconazole to patients. We have filled in the forms, attached proofs and submitted our requirements, but we haven’t got the drug.”
Health minister Jain too is frustrated. “Our demand is much higher than what we have been allocated by the Centre,” he said. “How can we give the drug to hospitals in adequate amounts when we ourselves receive so little? Even Delhi High Court has recognised the shortage and directed the Centre to source it from wherever they can. Amphotericin B cannot be purchased from medical stores because the infection cannot be treated at home, only in a hospital under the supervision of a doctor. Delhi has 197 cases, including some people from outside the city."