518 People Lost Their Lives To Mucormycosis In Maharashtra - Bombay High Court Asks Union To Consider Increasing Allocation Of Amphotericin B

The court also sought details on state-wise allocation of the injection from the Union government to assess its equitable distribution.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni, made the observation on Tuesday, while hearing a clutch of public interest litigations on the issue of Covid management in the State.

Maharashtra's Advocate General, Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, informed the bench that as on June 7, there were 6,287 mucormycosis patients in the State, of which 518 had lost their lives, 1,695 were discharged and 4,033 were under treatment. Another 41 patients had taken discharge against medical advice.

The court was also informed that though the in-house manufacturing at Haffkine Institute in Mumbai would yield about 40,000 vials by June 10, it was still insufficient to treat the over 6,200 cases as each patient required four-five injections per day for three-four weeks.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, for the Union government, informed the bench that the Centre's allocation for Maharashtra was 91,000 injections. But it would be increased to 2.7 lakh vials.

The court then asked the total number of cases for mucormycosis across the country, to which Singh informed the bench that the figure was around 19,700. "As per figures, at least one-fourth of allocation should come to Maharashtra," the bench suggested to the Centre.

Advocate Atharva Dandekar, appearing for petitioner Sneha Marjadi, pointed out that the numbers of cases were rising and that there needed to be an awareness campaign through automated calls, voicemails and billboards, the way it was done for coronavirus.

The bench sought to know what were the steps taken by the government to make people aware of the precautions they needed to take, as black fungus was affecting non-Covid patients as well. "People need to be told how to avoid the disease. The dos and dont's have to be scrupulously followed,'' the CJ said, pointing out from the Centre's guidelines that "toothache was also one of the symptoms."

The judges also enquired about Covid-19 prevention measures in children in view of an expected third wave. "Going by the old saying 'prevention is better than cure', you have to find out. We have to tell parents so that their children don't do a particular thing or visit places where they can get infected," the CJ said.

Advocate Rajesh Inamdar, appearing for one of the petitioners, told the court that there was still a shortage of the drug Tocilizumab and that the government hadn't taken any steps towards an alternative drug. He claimed that the drug was in short supply as some payments were not cleared.

"People's lives cannot be taken so lightly merely because you (Union Government) have some contractual obligations. People are losing lives every day. State and Union merely file affidavits without understanding the pain of people. I am saying this with utmost responsibility," he submitted. He added that he had sent recordings of patients with black marketers where they were asking upto Rs 2 lakh for the drug. The ASG sought time to take instructions on the issue.

The bench will hear the case again on June 10.