Make mucormycosis notifiable disease, states urged

6L vials of anti-fungal medicine Amphotericin-B to be imported

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 20

Hit by an alarming surge in cases of black fungus (mucormycosis) during and after Covid-19 treatment, the government today asked states to notify the lethal disease, mandating every public and private health facility to report all suspected and confirmed cases.

Doctors across India have begun calling mucormycosis an “epidemic within a pandemic” with the disease causing maiming, loss of vision and brain infection.

Haryana and Rajasthan were the first to make the disease notifiable.

Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital alone has 51 patients of black fungus, 75 per cent of them are diabetic. The disease is mostly being seen among diabetic Covid patients on steroid therapy.

The Health Ministry’s letter to states says, “This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among Covid-19 patients. The treatment requires multidisciplinary approach consisting of eye surgeons, ENT specialists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons, dental maxillo facial surgeons and institution of antifungal medicine Amphotericin-B.”

The ministry has asked states to make mucormycosis a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act-1897, wherein all “government and private health facilities, medical colleges will follow guidelines for screening, diagnosis and management issued by the Centre and ICMR, making it mandatory for all these facilities to report all suspected and confirmed cases to the Health Department.

Gujarat alone has reported over 500 cases.

With mucormycosis raging, the Centre today announced a plan to import 6 lakh vials of Amphotericin-B. Minister of Chemicals Mansukh Mandaviya said the shortage of Amphotericin-B would be resolved soon.