No dearth of medicine to treat black fungus, assures Union Minister

No dearth of medicine to treat black fungus, assures Union Minister

Bengaluru: Asserting that there will be no shortage of drugs to treat ‘black fungus’ (mucormycosis), Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday said that an additional 29,250 vials of Amphotericin-B, use to cure the fungal infection, have been allocated to all the states and Union Territories.

In a series of tweets, he said the 29,250 vials were allocated, based on the number of patients under treatment which is 11,717 across the country.

Earlier, 19,420 vials of Amphotericin-B were allocated on May 24 and 23,680 vials of the drug were supplied across the country on May 21.

According to the Minister, additional 1,220 vials of Amphotericin-B have been allocated for 481 patients who are under treatment for black fungus in Karnataka.

Prior to it, 1,030 vials of the drug were already allocated to Karnataka on May 24 and 1,270 vials on May 21.

The data shared by the Minister shows that Gujarat has 2,859 patients, which is the maximum in the country, followed by 2,770 in Maharashtra, 768 in Andhra Pradesh, 752 in Madhya Pradesh, 744 in Telangana ,and 701 in Uttar Pradesh.

Health experts have expressed concern over the growing cases of mucormycosis, which was a very rare phenomena previously and now appearing as a post-Covid complication.

IANS