AI pilot strike robs cancer patients of their medicines

CHENNAI: Thousands of cancer patients across the country are in pain, deprived of diagnosis and treatment after several of the 400 hospitals ran out of nuclear medicine because of the Air India strike.
Air India has the largest network of flights that airlift perishable radioactive isotopes from Mumbai and Delhi to other cities and towns. Other airlines that deliver the isotopes either do not have regular services to small towns or dangerous goods (DGR) certified aircraft and pilots authorised to carry such material.Some centres in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, which arranged special flights to get the isotopes at a higher cost, are in a state of uncertainty as the stocks are likely to run out in a day or two.
“The last dose of Sm153 (an isotope used for treating bone cancer patients in excruciating pain) at my centre got over today. Tomorrow, I would have no option but to send back at least six patients. At several other centres, people with cancer of several parts of the body will go without treatment,” said Dr Ajith Joy, a nuclear medicine consultant at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram.
Thyroid cancer patients, who are kept ‘prepared’ for iodine therapy for about four weeks, are among the worst hit. If the therapy using iodine doesn’t start, they are likely to develop problems like oedema, lethargy, loss of appetite and decreased kidney function. “I’ve been waiting for iodine therapy for five weeks. I have gained 20kg and it’s getting increasingly painful,” said Sukanya (name changed), a patient in Bangalore. For people like her, the alternative is a recombinant TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), which is costlier by Rs 90,000.
Some hospitals, which have given appointments to patients, are bearing the extra cost.