The State-run Cheluvamba Hospital, which is one of the oldest healthcare facilities in Karnataka for women and children, does not have the medicines needed to treat children with diphtheria. The hospital, attached to the Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, has no stock of anti-diphtheria serum (ADS).
As a result, the Health Department was recently forced to send two children to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) in Bengaluru and 22 children to the Epidemic Diseases Hospital on Hunsur Road.
Diphtheria spread at Mahabodhi school here some days ago and 24 children, who tested positive, were shifted to other hospitals because of the lack of ADS at Cheluvamba Hospital.
Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep, through the Health Department, instructed the hospital authorities a few weeks ago to procure ADS stocks immediately as there have been many cases of diphtheria in recent times. But the hospital is yet to do so.
According to sources at JSS Hospital, at least 18 children have been admitted to the hospital in the past month with symptoms of diphtheria. Of them, six have tested positive and are being treated there.
Stocking issues
Gopinath, district RCH officer, told The Hindu that even the Epidemic Diseases Hospital had no stock of ADS when the children were brought in from Mahabodi school. He had to procure 15 ADS units from a neighbouring district. He said he has asked the hospital to stock up ADS.
One unit of ADS costs ₹1,350, Mr. Gopinath said. He said hospitals have been asked to procure them under the Arogya Raksha Samiti scheme and store them to meet any eventuality. The officer noted that there are chances of re-emergence or persistence of diphtheria in Mysuru.
Radhamani, medical superintendent of Cheluvamba Hospital, said she was making efforts to procure ADS. She said not even one child with diphtheria had come to the hospital in the past six months, and this was the reason the hospital did not stock up on the serum.
