Aziz Ahmed, a resident of Ilkal in Bagalkot district, spent two days trying to get a hospital bed for his 22-year-old nephew after he contracted mucormycosis. However, the youth, who has leukaemia, did not contract the dreaded black fungus through COVID-19. And with the State health machinery prioritising COVID-19 patients with mucormycosis, finding treatment for his nephew proved to be a nightmare.
Almost all medical facilities in the city treating the infection —both public and private ones — are filled with COVID-19 patients.
Even if there is a bed vacant, hospitals cannot admit a non-COVID-19 patient in the ward. The 30 beds earmarked for COVID-19 Associated Mucormycosis (CAM) at Victoria Hospital and the 10 at Lady Curzon and Bowring Hospital are occupied. “We cannot admit a non-CAM patient with CAM patients. It will only lead to further complications,” said Smitha Segu, task force head and nodal officer for COVID-19 at Victoria Hospital.
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Even the critical medicine Liposomal Amphotericin B, which is in short supply, is being supplied on a priority basis for COVID-19 patients, leaving others, like Mr. Ahmed’s nephew, high and dry. He cannot afford treatment in private hospitals, where the cost is in the range of ₹4 lakh to ₹6 lakh, and as his nephew does not have CAM he is not entitled to the free treatment announced by the government. “We don’t have the wherewithal to bear the cost of treatment at a private hospital. But our inquiries in private hospitals also revealed that there are no beds available for non-COVID-19 patients suffering from the fungal infection. Also, the drug is unavailable,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Mucormycosis is a fungal infection mostly found in patients with compromised immune systems. While there has been an outbreak of the infection in COVID-19 patients, it was prevalent even before the pandemic. Cancer patients and severe diabetics are prone to it.