Ravi G. waited for hours at Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute to get a bed for his brother Muralikrishna, who was diagnosed with black fungus or mucormycosis after he got COVID-19. But the wait was in vain.
The government had earmarked 10 beds at the institute for COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM), which filled up within hours on Wednesday. “There is a long queue of patients waiting for a bed. I eventually admitted my brother to a private hospital, but I am unable to bear the expense,” said Mr. Ravi.
H.V. Manoj Kumar, dean and director of the institute, said they had taken in 16 patients even though they had 10 beds. “This is much beyond our capacity, but there are more patients waiting in the triage centre, whom we don’t know how to accommodate,” he said.
This prompted the government to open another 20 bed CAM ward at Victoria Hospital on Wednesday morning, which also was full within hours. Several patients are still waiting to get a bed, clearly indicating the scale of CAM cases in the city. “We are working on adding more beds and opening another ward dedicated to CAM patients, which may be operational from Thursday,” said Smitha Segu, task force head and nodal officer for COVID-19, Victoria Hospital.
Health and Family Welfare Minister K. Sudhakar on Sunday said a total of 97 patients had contracted CAM in the State. However, multiple doctors The Hindu spoke to on Tuesday estimated there were at least 200 cases in the city itself.
The State government declared CAM a notifiable disease on Wednesday, mandating all hospitals to report cases to the Department of Health and Family Welfare. This will provide the government the exact number of cases being reported in the State, a data that the State government does not have till now. With cost of treatment being unaffordable to many in private hospitals, there is a demand for augmenting CAM treatment facilities in the public sector and also allotment of beds in private hospitals under government quota like for COVID-19. The government is yet to take a call on this.
