Bombay HC calls for black fungus details in Marathwada

Mumbai: Bombay high court bench in Aurangabad on Thursday directed the state to place before it “a ready reference chart” on June 10 to indicate how many mucormycosis patients were under treatment, the number of patients cured and deaths in Marathwada region. The state needs to be sensitive to shortage of medicine in the region to treat ‘black fungus’ said the HC and sought a chart on supply of key drug, Amphotericin-B, from June 2-9, date-wise.
The HC bench of Justices R V Ghuge and B U Debadwar passed the order while hearing a suo motu criminal PIL on Covid-19 measures.The HC directed the state to apprise the Union government about the situation as the region has 669 active cases and 124 deaths due to the fungal infection so far.
Chief public prosecutor D R Kale said Marathwada reported 1,178 mucormycosis cases. While 669 patients are under treatment, 385 have been cured and 124 died. As against a requirement of 50,178 vials of Amphotericin B, Marathwada received only 13,428, the HC noted.
For the Centre, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, said that between May 11-31, the state was allocated 68,660 of 2.7 lakh vials of Amphotericin B available with Centre, as patients in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat are more.
Advocate S S Bora, amicus curiae, submitted that given the medicine shortage, “patients in Marathwada are being under-treated”.
The matter was adjourned to June 10. —Swati Deshpande