Shortage of drugs
While the medicos and the general populace in Kashmir is fighting the deadly coronavirus since the past many months now, the fight is getting tougher with every passing day as the number of deaths have not only crossed 410 mark but the active positive case too stand at a staggering 22K mark.
The fight is getting tougher owing to the lack of facilities at our healthcare and quarantine centres spread across Jammu and Kashmir. One the one hand the lack of ventilators and their timely availability to patients in distress is leading to more deaths and on the other the anti virals suggested to help in the treatment of Covid-19 are running in short supply.
Drugs like Remdesvir and Tocilizumab have shown some hope as the revival rates of severely sick patients have shown remarkable improvement when these drugs were administered to them.
However, what is being witnessed is that both the drugs are running in short supply and even the leading hospital for Covidcare, SKIMS has openly admitted that one of the drug (Remdesvir) prescribed for Covid-19 patients is not freely available and the patients will have to pay for getting the dosages of the injection.
The dosage for Remdesvir is costing the patients a fortune with different brands being sold to them from 32k to around 45k. However, the drug like Tocilizumab is proving a much bigger deal with the drug being available to the patients for around 90k.
There have been situations when patients or their attendants have shown their willingness to purchase the drugs from open market but the same are not available with te retailers asking the patients to wait for 24 hours for getting the supply.
The shortage and the cost of these anti viral drugs is making situation very scary for the people here. The administration too has failed to play its role and ensure that the drugs are available in the market and that too at highly subsidized rates so that the death’s du to Covid-19 that are becoming a routine in Kashmir are brought down.
Ironically, this is not the first time that Kashmir has been facing shortage of life saving drugs. During the August 5 clampdown last year hundreds of diabetic and haemophilic patients, who need regular medicines, were the worst hit as most of the chemist shops selling these medicines exhausted their stock and were unable to place orders for fresh supply owing to the clampdown.
The haemophilia unit of Kashmir in the SMHS hospital in Srinagar did not received the supply of anti-haemophilia factors for almost a month and blood transfusion at SKIIMS remained the only option available for the patients.
Since Covid-19 is proving one of the most challenging pandemic for the people here, the administration has to be in hyper active mode and act to provide some relief to the people. One such measure can be making the drug available through government outlets at affordable prices.