5-month-old girl fighting with the deadly disease to get injections worth Rs 16 crores, know how the government and public helped
Mumbai, February 13, 2021: Five-month-old baby girl Teera Kamat is being treated at a hospital, where she is fighting a battle between life and death on a ventilator. Teera is battling a debilitating disease called SMA Type1. To recover from this disease, the girl needs injections that cost Rs 16 crore.
According to media reports, the injection that is effective in treating this disease is coming from America. The price of this injection is said to be 16 crores. Teera’s parents are not capable enough to afford such an expensive injection. They resorted to crowdfunding by making a social media page. Teera’s parents raised Rs 10 crore by January 14 through crowdfunding. However, it was still insufficient.
The big thing for the treatment was a tax of about 6.5 crores. However, with the intervention of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, the Modi government waived all taxes on injection (23 percent import duty and 12 percent GST), which is worth around 6.5 crores. Devendra Fadnavis wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after this matter came to the fore and requested the exemption from all taxes on the injection.
Due to this step of the Modi government and with the people’s help, the way for the treatment of baby Tira has now opened. The injection will be ordered from the US soon. It is being told that the child will be treated using gene therapy. The surgery performed on her will bring back the same missing gene during her birth. According to the child’s parents, Tira was healthy at birth, but her health gradually deteriorated later.
Spinal muscular atrophy type-1 is a rare disease. Children who suffer from spinal muscular atrophy type-1 have weak muscles, lack of water in the body, and difficulty breastfeeding and breathing. In this disease, the child becomes completely inactive.
