Thread by @BrendanMIRROR

#Gujarat declared #Mucormycosis an epidemic and made it a notifiable disease on May 20, but...

This should've been done much, much earlier and still, gaps remain.

A Thread.

Centre says Health is a state subject & yet, #Gujarat the state burdened most with #Mucormycosis in India, waited for an appeal from the GoI before deeming it an epidemic & making it notifiable.

Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha & Haryana did this before the letter.

1/n

There were 1,237 active #Mucormycosis patients in six major hospitals of #Gujarat on May 20.

Three days earlier, on May 17, Gujarat had 1,040 cases in these six hospitals.

And still, Mucormycosis was not made notifiable even after the state had the highest cases in India.

2/n

Gujarat govt statement read, "...All diagnosis & treatment will be done as per ICMR guidelines. All cases will be regularly reported to GoI."

Irony is that 10/18 experts who formed @ICMRDELHI guidelines released on May 9, are from Gujarat.

Since they handled most cases.

3/n

Major point of concern with #Mucormycosis in #Gujarat is that the highest number of cases not in Ahmedabad (371), but in Rajkot Civil Hospital (437).

More concerning is that patients from these two cities are going to Bhavnagar since there is waitlist for surgeries here.

4/n

In bad news from the clinical side apart from early onset in Covid+ patients, doctors at @civilhospamd say they've seen some mild Covid patients with diabetes who were just under home isolation & hadn't received steroids but had still contracted black fungus.

#Mucormycosis

5/n

Lastly, now that #Mucormycosis has been made notifiable in #Gujarat will the case and death data be made publicly available?

There is no data coming in from pvt hospitals but patients have been flowing into govt hospitals just to get access to #AmphotericinB

6/n

Here is today's piece on the state of #Mucormycosis in #Gujarat , the policy of making Amphotericin B available to private hospitals and the fact that it has now been declared an epidemic.

N/n

ahmedabadmirror.com/better-late-th…

SVP and LG hospital in Ahmedabad have out up boards saying they've run out of #AmphotericinB anti-fungal medication used for treatment of #Mucormycosis

This comes a day after #Gujarat formulated a distribution strategy for private hospitals where patients are struggling.