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JODHPUR: With the increasing number of mucormycosis or black fungus cases being reported from Jodhpur and its surrounding areas in the past 3 to 4 days, the health officials have been forced to draw protocols for its treatment.
In Jodhpur, a woman diagnosed with the deadly fungal infection had her eye extracted early this week and 4-5 more such cases are under observation at MDM Hospital.
Senior professor of ENT at SN Medical College, Bharti Solanki told TOI that mucormycosis has come up as a new threat to the doctors. “We have 3-4 suspected cases under observation and a detailed report of these patients is awaited,” said Solanki.
She said they are gearing up to deal with the threat and have been working on drafting a treatment protocol for this. A meeting was held regarding devising strategy to deal with the threat of mucormycosis at MDM Hospital on Saturday.
“We held a meeting and have constituted a task force comprising a microbiologist, ophthalmologist, general physician, neuro-physician and otolaryngologist (ENT). This task force will come up with a protocol for the treatment of mucormycosis and undertake required preparations at the hospital,” said Mahendra Aseri, superintendent, MDM Hospital.
Confirming the steady reports of the fungal infection in Jodhpur and surrounding districts, joint director (medical & health-Jodhpur Zone) Jogehswar Prasad said that complaints of symptoms were being reported from the past few days. “We are observing the situation, but confirmation of their suffering from mucormycosis would only be determined after a clinical report,” he said.
Alok Gupta, HoD, medicine, SN Medical College, said that indiscriminate use of oxygen and steroids has led to steady reporting of the cases of mucormycosis in post-Covid patients this time.
“Many patients stressed on oxygen and steroids this time, mostly at home and thus, without knowing about proper precautions in use of humidifier (liquid) with oxygen and instead of using saline or distilled water, they mostly used normal water, without proper sterilization of the bottle. This produced fungus in the bottle, which entered through an oxygen pipe into the patients’ body,” he said.
He said that other factors making the patients’ vulnerable are weak immunity post recovery and high blood sugar levels and added that only early diagnosis is the cure of the fungus.
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