JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir on Friday reported its first death due to black fungus after a 40-year-old COVID-19 recovered patient died of mucormycosis at Government Medical College (GMC) hospital here, an official said.
The patient who was admitted to GMC hospital has succumbed to the infection, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo, told PTI.
Giving details, Principal of GMC hospital Dr Shashi Sudan Sharma said the man suffered from a high degree of diabetes of 900 level and was immunocompromised.
He must have taken a lot of steroids resulting in the uncontrollable diabetes level resulting in diabetic ketoacidosis syndrome, she said.
The patient had tested negative of COVID-19 before he was admitted to hospital for the fungal infection.
She said this is an avoidable complication which can be restricted by strictly monitoring the blood sugar levels of COVID-19 patients who have been put on steroids, which was being undertaken by doctors at the hospital.
But his condition was bad when he was admitted into hospital, she pointed out.
Sharma said there is no need to panic regarding the transmission as this disease does not spread like COVID-19.
"We have so far just detected this single case only. So, people are advised not to panic", she said.
The state on Friday recorded 3,848 fresh COVID cases that took its tally to 2,63,905 while 43 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 3,465, officials said.
Out of the fresh cases, 1,442 were from the Jammu division and 2,406 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, they added.
The officials said that Srinagar district recorded the highest number of cases (598), followed by Jammu (401) and Budgam (344).
The number of active cases in the UT is 49,893 while 2,10,547 patients have recovered so far.