Black Fungus
Black Fungus not a new disease in Kashmir: Doctors
Srinagar: Stressing that Black Fungus was not a new but a rare disease, a senior surgeon at GMC Srinagar said a fresh case was slated for surgery while three others had been treated at the medical college in the past one year.
On Saturday, a 45 year old female patient who had recovered from COVID19 a month ago was diagnosed with Mucormycosis infection at GMC Srinagar, Prof Manzoor Ahmed Lattoo who works at the high load ENT Department of this medical college said.
He said the patient is undergoing treatment and his department is planning to operate on her soon.
“She is diabetic and doing well for now,” he said.
Prof Lattoo said that the patient is the fourth case of ‘Black Fungus’ that has been detected among COVID19 patients in the past one year in Kashmir.
“Last year, we treated 10 patients of Mucormycosis, six of them were in non-COVID19 patients and four had either recovered from the infection or were active positive at that time,” he said.
All of these, he said, were diabetic. Prof Lattoo said one of the cases of Black Fungus was detected in a patient with Chronic Liver Disease who was admitted for treatment of COVID19.
“He did not survive,” he said.
Stressing that Black Fungus was a disease that essentially affected severely immune-compromised patients, a common condition among diabetics, he said: “All the patients that we saw had had diabetes for at least 8-10 years.”
He said that infection with SARS-CoV2 “gives a severe blow” to the immune system in people with uncontrolled diabetes.
“That is why we are hearing about more infections now,” he said.
“The use of steroids added to the risk of getting the infection.”
The fungus, he said, was present in soil and dirt but did not affect people who had a healthy immune system.
“If you are immune-competent, you are not at risk,” he said. The department of ENT, Prof Lattoo said, has been treating Black Fungus for a decade and was the only center in Kashmir equipped to handle the disease holistically.
Complete treatment and recovery is possible with the right treatment, he said adding that hygiene played an important role in prevention.
“There is medical literature that explains the risk factors and it includes medical equipment such as oxygen masks, fittings, now may be industrial oxygen also,” he said.
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