For the first time since fungal infections ran rampant in Gujarat during the 2nd #Covid wave, there is a visible drop in the no. of patients in eight major govt hospitals of Guj.
June 2: 1,940
June 6: 1,982 🔼
June 10: 1,866🔽
Caveat: While drop in the number of #Mucormycosis patients in major govt hospitals of #Gujarat is indeed good news, we must take into account that not all hospitals have seen this drop, a few have even seen cases rising. Still no data from pvt hospitals.
We at @ahmedabadmirror have been diligently following up on #Mucormycosis cases across major govt hospitals in #Gujarat, since there is no publicly available data from the state government regarding either cases or deaths.
Many experts say the third #COVID19 wave may not be as deadly to children as is being hyped. They may be right, so what?
What's happening is that years of pending upgrades of pediatric systems are being completed now 'cause nobody wants dead kids on their hands.
A Thread.
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Pediatricians in tertiary hospitals have for years, been complaining about the lack of staff doctors, nurses with PICU/NICU training, neonatal ventilators _ the fact that children on the brink of death keep getting sent to them w/o being stabilised.
Things could change now.
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In Nov 2017, protests erupted at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital after 57 infants died in 15 days around Diwali, most of them from peripheral districts.
Gujarat Assembly elections were held the next month.
Nobody sought the strengthening of peripheral pediatric infrastructure.
#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.
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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.
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