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Bengaluru hospitals out of beds to treat black fungus cases
BENGALURU: After the scarcity of the drug Liposomal amphotericin B, a shortage of hospital beds is affecting patients with mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection. Major hospitals in the city, which had reserved beds for such cases, say their wards are full now. Many patients turning up at OPDs are being sent back without treatment.
Patients with mucormycosis, dubbed black fungus, require nearly two weeks of hospital care.
The aggressive infection develops in the nasal tract, travels towards the eye, and can be fatal if it spreads to the brain. It is being detected in several people who recovered from Covid-19. Patients who received high doses of steroids or were on oxygen support during the Covid treatment are thought to be particularly vulnerable.
Minto Eye Hospital has seen more than 80 patients. Of these, 50 have been admitted, while the rest were treated in OPD and referred to other hospitals because of lack of beds. The latter group includes two women who had been self-isolating because of Covid and a 24-year-old cancer patient with no Covid history.
“We have come across one non-Covid patient with black fungus. Two patients were not treated in a hospital setting for Covid. We don’t know how they got infected,” said Dr Sujatha Rathod, the director of Minto hospital.
Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital has been made the nodal facility for treating mucormycosis. All its 35 beds reserved for such cases are currently occupied. “Our bed capacity is full,” said the hospital’s dean and director, Dr Manoj Kumar HV.
At St John’s Medical College Hospital, 53 patients are receiving treatment for mucormycosis. It has stopped new admissions as the beds are full. “We are in a very tough situation, and our surgeons are performing back-to-back operations. Currently, we are unable to admit any more patients for black fungus treatment. We are helpless,” said Dr Sanjiv Lewin, the chief of medical services at the hospital.
The alarming number of cases is worrying experts. “After talking to friends in the medical community, we learned that there are 400 to 500 patients in Bengaluru alone. In each other district, there are at least 25 cases. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The condition has been declared a notifiable disease, so the actual data should be known shortly,” said Dr Bhujang Shetty, a member of the state-level expert panel on mucormycosis. He is the chairman of Narayana Netralaya.
At HCG Hospital, 36 patients are under treatment. A 42-year-old man died on Friday. Because of an acute shortage of beds and ventilators, the number of surgeries conducted on such patients has come down, said ENT surgeon Dr Guarav Madikeri, who is the programme director of the skull base unit at HCG Group of Hospitals. “Most of the patients have just recovered from Covid and their lung capacity is not optimal. There are high chances of them developing pneumonia. They may need a ventilator and there is a shortage,” he added.
According to Dr Lewin, eye hospitals must start treating black fungus cases by hiring other specialists. Dr Shetty said that all the mucormycosis patients were diabetic, and it might not be possible to treat such cases in eye hospitals as the condition required multidisciplinary treatment. “We need physicians, ENT surgeons, neurosurgeons and anaesthetists, and not only ophthalmologists. Our hands are tied; it’s an extraordinary situation,” Dr Shetty added.
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BENGALURU: After the scarcity of the drug Liposomal amphotericin B, a shortage of hospital beds is affecting patients with mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection. Major hospitals in the city, which had reserved beds for such cases, say their wards are full now. Many patients turning up at OPDs are being sent back without treatment.
Patients with mucormycosis, dubbed black fungus, require nearly two weeks of hospital care.
The aggressive infection develops in the nasal tract, travels towards the eye, and can be fatal if it spreads to the brain. It is being detected in several people who recovered from Covid-19. Patients who received high doses of steroids or were on oxygen support during the Covid treatment are thought to be particularly vulnerable.
Minto Eye Hospital has seen more than 80 patients. Of these, 50 have been admitted, while the rest were treated in OPD and referred to other hospitals because of lack of beds. The latter group includes two women who had been self-isolating because of Covid and a 24-year-old cancer patient with no Covid history.
“We have come across one non-Covid patient with black fungus. Two patients were not treated in a hospital setting for Covid. We don’t know how they got infected,” said Dr Sujatha Rathod, the director of Minto hospital.
Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital has been made the nodal facility for treating mucormycosis. All its 35 beds reserved for such cases are currently occupied. “Our bed capacity is full,” said the hospital’s dean and director, Dr Manoj Kumar HV.
At St John’s Medical College Hospital, 53 patients are receiving treatment for mucormycosis. It has stopped new admissions as the beds are full. “We are in a very tough situation, and our surgeons are performing back-to-back operations. Currently, we are unable to admit any more patients for black fungus treatment. We are helpless,” said Dr Sanjiv Lewin, the chief of medical services at the hospital.
The alarming number of cases is worrying experts. “After talking to friends in the medical community, we learned that there are 400 to 500 patients in Bengaluru alone. In each other district, there are at least 25 cases. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The condition has been declared a notifiable disease, so the actual data should be known shortly,” said Dr Bhujang Shetty, a member of the state-level expert panel on mucormycosis. He is the chairman of Narayana Netralaya.
At HCG Hospital, 36 patients are under treatment. A 42-year-old man died on Friday. Because of an acute shortage of beds and ventilators, the number of surgeries conducted on such patients has come down, said ENT surgeon Dr Guarav Madikeri, who is the programme director of the skull base unit at HCG Group of Hospitals. “Most of the patients have just recovered from Covid and their lung capacity is not optimal. There are high chances of them developing pneumonia. They may need a ventilator and there is a shortage,” he added.
According to Dr Lewin, eye hospitals must start treating black fungus cases by hiring other specialists. Dr Shetty said that all the mucormycosis patients were diabetic, and it might not be possible to treat such cases in eye hospitals as the condition required multidisciplinary treatment. “We need physicians, ENT surgeons, neurosurgeons and anaesthetists, and not only ophthalmologists. Our hands are tied; it’s an extraordinary situation,” Dr Shetty added.
Covid-19: Bengaluru hospitals out of beds to treat black fungus cases - Times of India
After the scarcity of the drug Liposomal amphotericin B, a shortage of hospital beds is affecting patients with mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection. Major hospitals in the city, which had reserved beds for such cases, say their wards are full now. Many patients are being sent back from the...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
@Beast @PakSword @HRK @Mrc @Areesh @DESERT FIGHTER
