JAIPUR: Though the anti-Covid-19 drug2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), which has been developed by Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has not arrived in the state, some of the doctors have started prescribing it to Covid patients, forcing their attendants to run from pillar to post to get it, but all their efforts go in vain as the medicine is not available.
Health authorities claimed that it will create a demand and people will try to procure it from anywhere which will increase the chances of its black-marketing.
The doctors prescribing the medicine are creating a demand for the medicine, despite its unavailability in the state.
“For my 53-year-old patient who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, doctors prescribed 2-DG.
We searched for the drug in the market and everywhere in Jaipur and contacted the health authorities but we did not find it,” said Hitesh Bandhia, a city businessman.
Bandhia said, “Why the doctors are prescribing the medicines which are not available in the market.” Not only Bandhia, but a lot of attendants of patients are facing the same problem, who are trying to get the medicine from Delhi.
A doctor in Jaipur prescribed 2-DG to a 70-year-old patient whose HRCT score was 20/25 and who was in respiratory distress.
His attendants searched for the medicine and also put it on social media but in vain.
Aware of unavailability of the drug,the doctors also put a note on the prescription mentioning that the medicine is not available in the market so it has to be procured from outside.
A senior health department official said, “The drug has not arrived in the state yet.
But, a lot of people are demanding it.
When we ask them, they tell us that doctors are prescribing it.
I want to make it clear that 2-DG is not available in the state but soon it will be made available.
The doctors prescribing it to the Covid patients are unnecessarily creating problems for the attendants of patients, who will try to buy it from anywhere which may give rise to incidents of black-marketing.
We are appealing to the doctors since the drug is not available, they should not put pressure on the attendants.”