Delhi hospitals still face scarcity of drug, people allege available in black market

NEW DELHI: Hospitals continue to reel under shortage of Amphotericin-B even as people are being admitted to various hospitals in the city with suspected or confirmed cases of mucormycosis. Many claim that while the hospitals are not getting adequate supplies, the medicine is available in the black market and people are even hoarding it.

Most hospitals that TOI spoke to stated that there was definitely a shortage although they managed to get some vials.The newspaper had on Friday reported about entrepreneur Anil Bhardwaj who was waiting for the approval for the drug for his wife admitted at Max Saket.
When TOI asked him on Saturday if the hospital managed to get the drug, he said ‘yes’ but the approval came for just seven vials. “My wife has been advised seven vials a day for at least 10 days to start with. She got the first dose on 17th and second on 18th. After a gap, she is getting the third dose on Saturday night. We can only pray that now there is not a single day’s gap,” said Bhardwaj.

Sources at Max stated that the hospital was managing with alternative medicines but agreed that there was a shortage of the drug. “The number of vials needed is more than what is being approved, but we are trying to do our best. We did get some approvals and are awaiting more. Seven vials per day are required for a patient for ten days so one can easily calculate how many vials are needed as per the number of patients the city has,” a source said.

A senior doctor working at a private hospital in the city said, “Amphotericin-B is in severe short supply and there is huge black marketing going on. Hospitals were not even getting half of the supplies demanded. It is quite a bad situation. The sad part is that the drug is available in the black market and we don’t even know whether it is authentic. It is a sorry state of affairs for such a life threatening disease. We are not getting the medicines in the correct way. I think that is a major management failure on part of all the stakeholders.”
Other private hospitals in the capital reeling under the shortage and inadequate supply are Fortis and Apollo among others.