Black Fungus: Owing to high costs of treatment, poor families stand helpless

Soon after the battle for Covid19 is over recovered patients are falling prey to mucormycosis in huge numbers which leads to fungal infection The Centre declared it as a notifiable disease while 11 states have already declared it as an epidemicOwing to the cost of the treatment of mucormycosis that goes up to atleast five lakhs many poor families are standing helpless as their near ones continue to suffer from the deadly fungal infection The line of treatment in mucormycosis is urgent and needs to be started as soon as the presence of fungal infections is confirmed in the patients to avoid painful suffering and mortalityWhile government hospitals have started giving treatments many of the private supermultispeciality hospitals in the national capital told ANI that the cost of treatment can range up to Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakhs per patient excluding post discharge treatment A resident of Jodhpur who has a case of mucormycosis in his family fatherinlaw and has been hospitalised on the condition of anonymity stated During the initial fourfive days we suffered a lot following scarcity of the medicine and now we are suffering due to the cost of the treatment which is huge for any middleclass family to afford He said At first we dealt with Covid19 treatment and now mucormycosis Doctors have told us that my father in law who has got black fungusin the nose requires atleast 80 vials Right now the hospital is providing the injections for free till the time he is in the Covid19 ward But when discharged in another two days I do not know how to afford all these vialsAnother patients kin Aman Sinha whose brotherinlaw is admitted to a private hospital in Gurugram said We are providing daily vials costing Rs 48000 per day and this we have to keep on providing for another 14 days He was admitted five days ago and till now we have spent Rs 35 lakhsAlso ReadMaharashtra govt declares Mucormycosis as notifiable diseaseAs per reports Liposomal Amphotericin costs on an average of Rs 3500 to Rs 8000 per vial Amphotericin is available in three different forms Liposomal Amphotericin a lipid complex version and Amphotericin B deoxycholate the older version of the anti fungal But it has been observed by experts that the older version can cause significant morbidity because it involves damage to the kidneys as most of the patients are diabetic for which Liposomal Amphotericin is preferredDr VK Monga a public health expert told ANI Its diagnosis and treatment are very costly proposition For diagnosis a battery of costly tests like blood investigations endoscopy fungal staining and multiple radiology MRICT may be required Similarly treatment involves costly antifungal medicines and injections which are in short supply and tedious surgeries by a battery of surgeons ENT ophthalmologist Faciomaxillory neurosurgeon and reconstructive surgeonMost of these can only be performed at multispecialty tertiary care centers in major cities A doctor from a government hospital in Delhi who is treating patients with mucormycosis cases told ANI on the condition of anonymity The treatment is definitely expensive as 100 to 150 vials are needed for a stretch of three to four weeks It is indeed burdensome for the poor people Eleven states and UTs that declared mucormycosis as an epidemic under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 in the country reported an acute shortage of AmphotericinB that is an antifungal drug used to treat the ubiquitous fungus Delhi Bihar Haryana Gujarat Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Jharkhand Tamil Nadu Maharashtra Telangana notified mucormycosis or widely known as black fungus as an epidemic Union Ministry reported 5424 cases of mucormycosis across India out of which 4556 patients have a history of Covid19 infection with 55 per cent diabeticsThis 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