SRINAGAR: Ever since the Jammu and Kashmir administration notified Mucormycosis (Black Fungus) under the Epidemic Diseases Act, as many as 18 cases have been confirmed. Of them, four persons have already died, media reports said.
On June 4, Jammu newspaper Daily Excelsior reported, there are 14 confirmed and 8 suspected cases of Mucormycosis in the UT and 4 persons have succumbed to this infection while 18 are under treatment in different hospitals.
Of the 22 cases (14 confirmed and 8 suspected), it added, highest 11 cases have were in Jammu district, 5 from Kathua, 2 each from Srinagar and Udhampur districts and 1 each from Poonch and Reasi districts. The four deaths have been reported from Kathua (2), Jammu (1) and Poonch (1) districts, it quoted sources saying.
Doctors have been insisting that the disease is not a never entry and has existed for ages in Jammu and Kashmir and is directly linked to immuno-compromised patients. Early detection is the key and eventually more than half manage to survive.
An official spokesman – late on Saturday – said the GMC Jammu’s Department of ENT and Head Neck Surgery of Government Medical College Jammu has so far operated on 09 patients of Mucormycosis (confirmed and suspected).
Various surgical procedures like endoscopic approach, open approach and combined approach were done to treat patients of Mucormycosis.
As per the specialists, who managed patients down with the Black Fungus at the Hospital, it was tracked down that the greater part of these cases was found in COVID-19 recovered patients. They said that with a prolonged high dose of steroids given during COVID treatment, the fungus effectively enters the body through the nose of patients with co-morbidities like diabetes, malignancy and low immunity. The fungus later contaminates the eyes and brain, making the patient lose sight for life.
The microbiology team included Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma, (Principal GMC Jammu and HOD), the Surgical team included Dr Parmod Kalsotra (HOD), Dr Padam Singh and Dr Sonika Kanotra, Anaesthesia team included Dr Samriti Gulati (HOD), Pathology team included Dr Subhash Bhardwaj (HOD), Ophthalmology team included Dr Satish Gupta (HOD), Medicine team included Dr Vijay Kundal ( HOD) and Dr Fayaz Wani along with a team of other faculty members, Senior and Junior Residents.
In addition to them, the OT staff included Sister Saema, Sister Nisha and Nursing Orderly included Sanjeev and Mathew, Anaesthesia Technician team included Fazal Ahmed and others.
