The downward trend in new Covid-19 cases over the past two and a half weeks has come as a welcome relief, but India is far from being out of the woods, as evidenced from the steep rise in the daily death toll extracted by the dreaded virus over the past one and a half months, not to mention the rapidly increasing incidence of mucormycosis, or black fungus, among those recovering from Covid.
Amidst the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, India has so far registered around 8,850 cases of this serious fungal disease, which is mostly infecting Covid patients who went through prolonged periods of steroid treatment or hospitalisation, or were on ventilators, or faced unhygienic hospital conditions, were on medication for pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes.
Taking lessons from the past, the Narendra Modi government has been quick on the draw.
The Union Health Ministry has already advised all states and union territories to declare mucormycosis as an epidemic and take steps to proactively prevent the occurrence of the potentially fatal infection as well as to control its spread. The Health Secretary recently wrote a letter to Chief Secretaries and administrators across the nation, urging them to ensure that Covid hospitals and other healthcare facilities maintained the required level of hygiene and sanitation on their premises by strictly adhering to the National Guidelines for Infection and Control in Healthcare Facilities.
Concerns about the shortage of Amphotericin B, a drug that is crucial to the treatment of black fungus, in the market were duly addressed as Union minister of chemicals and fertilisers D.V. Sadananda Gowda announced an allocation of 23,680 additional vials of Amphotericin-B. The allocation has been done in a logical manner: States such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, which have reported the highest incidences of black fungus cases (2281 and 2,000, respectively) have been allocated the highest number of vials (5,800 and 5,900, respectively).
However, there is a long way to go before this battle is won.
Mucormycosis has claimed at least 100 lives in Maharashtra alone. Apart from that state, many others, including Odisha (which has seen around 15 cases), have rightfully proclaimed black fungus as a Notifiable Disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, as it has spread to 22 states so far across the country.
Only yesterday, a new kind of health complication linked to disease was reported from a hospital in Delhi where – in a first – the infection has damaged the lower intestine in two patients. Black fungus is normally known to affect only the lungs and, more rarely, the stomach and large intestine. Besides, while steroids, hygiene and health conditions have been found to be the prime reasons behind the occurrence of the disease, the word on the street is that there may be other – as of yet unidentified – factors that need further investigation and studies.
Either way, just as the government and healthcare authorities are expected to take all possible measures to stop the black fungus from becoming an even bigger menace, the public must have a general awareness about its symptoms (fever, pain under the eyes, headache, nasal congestion, partial loss of vision, etc.), the circumstances and conditions conducive to its occurrence, and the utmost importance of its timely treatment.
Because, as they say, a known danger is always better than an unknown one.
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