Black fungus cases among Covid patients rise in Bengaluru; K'taka govt seeks details about

Bengaluru, May 12: After Delhi, Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat, the occurence of mucormycosis, or 'black fungus', in Covid-19 patients have now been reported in Karnataka.

In Bengaluru, many hospitals and eye hospitals have reported cases of black fungus, including Narayana Nethralaya, People Tree hospitals, Trust Well Hospital, Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital.

A rare but serious fungal infection, mucormycosis or 'black fungus' is being detected relatively frequently among Covid-19 patients in some states. The disease often manifests in the skin and also affects the lungs and the brain.

The Karnataka government has sought information from health experts about ''black fungus'' being detected among COVID patients in the country, Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Wednesday.

Addressing reporters at Chikkaballapura, he said, "I had a discussion with the technical advisory committee and the clinicians to submit a detailed report on black fungus in two days. Based on that, we will take a call."

The minister was replying to a query on media reports that the cases of black fungus or mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection, are on the rise among COVID-19 patients in some states, including Karnataka. He said the government wants to learn about the disease and its treatment. To another question on the rising double mutant variants of COVID, Sudhakar said he has ordered genealogical studies and its sequencing.

Black fungus scare: Govt engaging with drug makers to ramp up production of anti-fungal drug Amphotericin B

"Some have called it Indian variant also. It is behaving more erratically than the British variant. We are monitoring its movement as well. Some other countries are also studying it," the minister said.

On improving health infrastructure and medical care in Taluk level, the minister said the process to recruit 2,480 doctors and specialists in Taluk level had been going on for the past four-five months, which has now reached the final level.

"In the next two days, a gazette order will come for their recruitment. Due to this, there will not be any shortage of physicians and doctors in Taluk level. We will appoint doctors at Taluk level in four days," the minister said.

Besides this, the state has 50 oxygenated beds and six ventilators in each Taluk hospital. Karnataka has shown the declining trend in the COVID cases for the past two days reporting less than 40,000 infections from over 50,000 cases a few days back.

To bring the spread of COVID under control, the Karnataka government has imposed a lockdown-like stringent restriction in the state from May 10 to May 24 morning following the advice of the ministers, technical advisory committee and the opposition leaders.