Acute Short-Supply Of Vitamin C, Zinc Tablets In Several States. Another Crisis In Making?

While the country is grappling with shortage of medical oxygen to treat COVID patients, we may be looking at another crisis in making.

Amid black marketing of drugs like Remdesivir and Favipiravir, common medicines crucial in the recovery period for COVID patients are flying off the shelves in states like Bihar and Jharkhand.

Acute shortage of medicines in Jharkhand

In April, a petitioner in the Jharkhand High Court stated that ¡°there is acute shortage of medicines for treating COVID-19 patients such as Remdesivir Injection, Favipiravir, Doxycycline tablet and even the tablets of Fluguard, Vitamin-C and Zinc are not available in the open market.¡±

Drugs like Remdesivir and Favipiravir are being black-marketed at a high cost.

PTI

¡°The health situation in the State of Jharkhand is worsening day by day and because of non-supply of medicines like Remdesivir Injection and Favipiravir Tablets, the people are facing great difficulty and even dying due to lack of such medicines, which are required for giving treatment to persons suffering from Covid-19¡±, read the submission.

The High Court Bench has scathingly observed the situation in the state. ¡°¡­there is a pathetic situation in the State of Jharkhand, due to non-availability of beds, oxygen supported beds and even the patients are not in a situation to live in isolation in the house since they are not made available with the required medicines due to non-supply of such medicines. While on the other hand, it has been informed to this Court that injections like Remdesivir and tablets like Favipiravir are being black-marketed.¡±

Vitamin C, Zinc tablets, thermometers unavailable in Patna

The situation is alarming in Bihar capital too.

Posing a new challenge in India's battle against coronavirus, stocks of several other key COVID-related drugs are running low.

Most mild patients are primarily given multivitamins to strengthen their immune response against the disease. But these medicines are also low on supply.

AP

"Vitamin C tablets and Zincovit are not easily available in Patna. You have to really plead to chemists, to get these crucial medicines. Even then, they will only give you a single strip," says Patna-based Shakeb Ayaz, who has two COVID positive patients at home.

Amid severe shortage of Remdesivir, Shakeb told Indiatimes that retailers are charging exorbitant amounts for the drug.

"A retailer, who was selling Remdesivir, quoted Rs 22,000 for a single dose of injection in Old Delhi. It was a 'Made In Bangladesh' injection," says Shakeb.

India's capital is also facing a dreadful short-supply of these crucial drugs.

People are unable to find these drugs at pharmacies and vendors say they have not received their supply in many days.

Long queues are seen at medical stores and SOS messages requesting these drugs are desperately being circulated on social media.

Additionally, makeshift COVID care centres in Delhi are facing an acute shortage of flowmeters. It is a device that is used to supply oxygen to a patient from an oxygen cylinder. It also helps to measure the volume of gas released from the cylinder.

A non-government organisation, Doctors For You, which has been running four makeshift Covid Care Centres in Delhi, has said that it is not able to add oxygen beds in its centres due to lack of availability of flowmeters.