M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 29: Remdesivir, the most sought drug during the second wave of Covid pandemic is losing its shelf life in Palamu.
Civil surgeon Palamu Dr Anil Kumar confirmed that 479 vials of Remdesivir have already expired in Palamu so far.
Another huge consignment of Remdesivir is left with a short shelf life here. 2008 vials of Remdesivir will expire between March and October 2022.
The CS said these 2008 vials of Remdesivir will have to be discarded and separated from other usable drugs and medicines once its life expires.
Palamu had received a total of 3,440 Remdesivir vials in the second wave. A total of 953 vials of Remdesivir were utilised on the critical Covid positive patients.
Official statistics put the Covid-19 pandemic deaths in Palamu at 118.
A strong public perception had grown during the second wave of Corona pandemic that if covid positive patients were given Remdesivir, their lives could have been saved.
However, a senior doctor requesting for anonymity said that Remdesivir injection is neither Vitamin B6 or B12 injection, nor any nerve tonic and hence, its use is to be judiciously and medically decided only by the medical practitioners and not by the masses.
“We understand the pains of the families which lost their near and dear ones to Covid but to have this perception that Remdesivir would have played a miracle by saving lives is wishful thinking only,” the doctor said.
Civil surgeon Dr. Anil said: “We have this stock of intravenous injection right now which suggests we are in readiness to fight out any health emergency arising out of the Covid.”
Regarding expiring medicines and drugs he said that it is a very natural phenomenon with any medicine or injection.
He agreed that in the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic Remdesivir had gained a household name where there were one or two Covid patients in the house. The relatives and friends of patients on their own used to build pressure on doctors on duty in the Covid care centre to administer this injection to the patients in utter disregard of the medical advice.
Doctors and nurses, even civil surgeons and district programme managers, in Jharkhand were openly abused and humiliated for ‘sitting on the vials of Remdesivir not giving it to the Covid positive patients.’
Rampant black marketing of this injection was also alleged at a point. Sources said that this sprung up organised Remdesivir racketeers. Fake Remdesivir injections were also discovered in quite a few places in India.
