Deepali Kalia
Delhi High Court said that Centre should immediately procure Amphotericin-B, a drug prescribed for the treatment of black fungus from wherever it is available in the world in order to meet the shortage in the country and before any more precious lives are lost because of it.
Mucormycosis(Black Fungus) was a rare fungal infection but its unpredictable surge recently has been a great cause of concern. Doctors stated that previously they only faced10-15 cases a year but now close to 100 cases are being reported within weeks.
Black fungus causes blindness, loss of body tissue, organ dysfunction and even death if not treated in time. Doctors stated that due to steroid overuse during COVID 19 people especially with uncontrolled diabetes, weakened immunity and cancer are particularly more susceptible to the disease.
A divison bench comprising of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh stated that, “This issue is time. What is at a premium here? The premium here is time and human life so therefore 5 per cent allocation does not meet the desired result. It is neither here nor there. It does not serve the purpose. It has to be the complete supply. You need to import to bridge this gap between the plan to produce more and the actual production coming about, otherwise we will lose more precious lives. We want you to act today”.
The court therefore stressed that merely doubling production domestically would not meet the demand and hence, the medicine must be imported from outside.
The court directed the Centre to give a status report about the the present production capacity and list of producers, their enhanced capacity and when the enhanced capacity will be available.
The court was informed that as of May 19, there were 7,251 Black fungus cases across the country and the current no. in Delhi stood at 197.
The Centre further informed that around 82,110 vials have been distributed between May 10-20 across the country and the patients needed 42 vials per week. On May 11 Delhi was given 2,150 ; 600 on May 19; and 430 on May 20.
Rahul Mehra, counsel for Delhi stated that only about 10 percent demand across the country at present is being met and that there is a need to increase the production capacity and import from outside.
Kirtiman Singh, Counsel for Centre stated that Centre will request delivery of drug from countries that are producing it and will aim at increasing its production within countries as well.