Six men with black fungus symptoms admitted to Salem GH

Salem: Six people have been admitted to the Salem government hospital with symptoms of black fungus (mucormycosis).
While two were admitted on Thursday, four people were brought to the hospital on Friday. Hospital authorities said that all six were male patients, living in and around Salem.
A separate isolation ward has been created and a special team of doctors has been deputed to treat them.
Doctors said the six have symptoms of black fungus such as redness in the eyes, swollen cheeks, headache and nasal congestion. Their condition has been stable, and they are responding to treatment well.
Dean of Salem Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital Valli Sathyamoorthy, however, said they are yet to confirm if it was black fungal infection.
“They have symptoms. But we have to confirm if it was black fungus. We have to get an opinion from experts,’’ she said.
The patients are being administered antifungal drugs as part of the treatment. Most of them were diabetic and hence medication was being given to control diabetes.
“ENT specialists are also there taking care of them,’’ Valli Sathyamoorthy said.
The Tamil Nadu government declared black fungal infection as a notifiable disease a day ago making it mandatory for all the hospitals to inform every case detected and treated. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan had said on Thursday that there were nine confirmed cases of mucormycosis in the state.
The state health department is awaiting information on mucormycosis cases from hospitals in all the districts.
“It will take a day or two for the report to come,” director of public health T S Selvavinayagam said.
In Coimbatore, health authorities said that there are no cases of patients with mucormycosis under treatment now.
However, over the past few days some with symptoms like that of black fungal infection for admitted and were discharged after recovery.