DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has reported its second black fungus or mucormycosis fatality with a 72-year-old woman dying at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh, a senior doctor said on Wednesday.
The woman, who hailed from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, died during treatment on Tuesday, ENT surgeon Amit Tyagi, who leads a team of doctors attending on mucormycosis patients at the hospital, said.
A 36-year-old man had succumbed to the infection at the AIIMS in Rishikesh on Friday last week.
Meanwhile, five more patients with symptoms of black fungus have been admitted at the hospital, taking their number so far to 30 out of which two have died, Tyagi said.
An 81-year-old woman from Rishikesh has been discharged after being recovered from the infection, Tyagi said.
According to the Union Health Ministry, mucormycosis or black fungus is a complication caused by a fungal infection.
People catch mucormycosis by coming in contact with the fungal spores in the environment.
It can also develop on the skin after the fungus enters the skin through a cut, scrape, burn, or other type of skin trauma.
The disease is being detected among patients who are recovering or have recovered from COVID-19.
Moreover, anyone who is diabetic and whose immune system is not functioning well needs to be on the guard against this, said the ministry.
Five black fungus cases have been reported from the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, with one patient each found in Almora, Nainital and Pithoragarh and two in Udham Singh Nagar district.
A total of 38 black fungus cases have been reported so far from Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile, the state government has issued orders for judicious use of Amphotericin-B injection, a drug used in treating black fungus patients.
Issuing the directive, state Health Secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey said Amphotericin-B injection should be issued to only medical colleges and district COVID hospitals only after they formally apply for it giving details of the patients' nature of infection.
Head of Department of Medicine Doon Medical College and Hospital Narayan Jeet Singh and HoD (Medicine) Haldwani Medical College SR Saxena have been assigned the responsibility of scrutinising the applications for the injection.