Epidemics continue to haunt Mumbai and its suburbs with 38 cases of leptospirosis being reported from the civic hospitals and about 50 from private health facilities, as per the official data until Thursday. Further, whole of Maharashtra and Mumbai continue to experience severe shortage of drugs.

Besides, 89 patients of gastro, 8 cases of hepatitis, 5 for typhoid, 46 cases of malaria and about 540 cases of fever were reported from the civic hospitals in the city, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sources. Of the 15 patients who died in the civic hospitals on Thursday, seven were considered to be suffering from leptospirosis. About 159 people have died so far due to various epidemics.

Drug trade sources said the city and suburbs continue to experience severe shortage of essential medicines, including Doxycyclin for bacterial infections and leptospirosis treatment. As Pharmabiz reported earlier, Maharashtra is experiencing 40 per cent short supply of essential drugs consequent to the floods, last month.

Meanwhile, after issuing notices to the 11 major hospitals in the city for not informing on the status of patients, the response of the city hospitals is satisfactory now, said BMC.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, BMC additional commissioner V. Patankar said, “It was mandatory for the private doctors and hospitals to specify the number of patients with high fever admitted to the hospital. But, since many of the major private hospitals did not follow this, our chief executive officer J V Telang had to issue notices to them. It is important for us to know this statistical information as we are answerable to the death toll.”

“After we issued the notices to the hospitals, they are responding well. We are getting the information on the status of patients admitted from all the major hospitals in the city, every day. Their coordination will help us to control the spread of diseases. This will help us enhance our prevention methods that BMC is carrying out in the city,” explained Patankar.

The BMC had sent the notices to 11 major hospitals in the city to keep it informed about the number of admissions, types of diseases and number of deaths in the hospitals. The hospitals that were issued notices include Breach Candy, Lilavati, Jaslok and Hinduja. The step was taken to control the spread of epidemics in the city due to the floods.