Amid the second wave of COVID-19, there is another challenge for the country's medical professionals to deal with the increasing cases of Black Fungus or Mucormycosis.
Initially, only few districts in Maharashtra reported about the disease, observed mostly in COVID- 19 patients. Similar cases have been reported from other states like Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar etc.
The Central government wrote a letter on 20th May to all the states and union territories asking to make black fungus or mucormycosis a ‘Notifiable Disease’ under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897.
What is Notifiable Disease
A Notifiable Disease is any of disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities. It allows the authorities to strictly monitor the disease and provides an early warning of possible outbreaks.
Several states like Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat have declared mucormycosis, a life-threatening viral infection in Covid-19 patients, a ‘Notifiable Disease’ following the central government's advisory on Thursday.
Black Fungus commonly seen in COVID- 19 patients who are in the recovery phase of the disease. It usually infects people whose immune system has been weakened or compromised due to comorbidities such as diabetes, kidney or heart failure or cancer.
"This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients," Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said in the letter.
The symptoms of the Black Fungus infection include blackening or discoloration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.
Treatment of this fungal infection needs a multi- pronged approach consisting of eye surgeons, general surgeons, ENT specialists, neurosurgeons and dental maxillofacial surgeons, among others, and the institution of the Amphotericin-B injection as an antifungal medicine.
