BENGALURU: Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday said Mucormycosis or black fungus infection is now a notifiable disease and no hospital or medical centre having the capacity to provide treatment should deny admission to patients.
He said an official government order towards this will be notified soon.
Sudhakar, who is also in-charge of the Medical Education Department portfolio in a series of tweets said the treatment of post-covid Mucormycosis or black fungus found in some cases requires multi-disciplinary approach involving ENT specialist, anaesthetist, ophthalmologist and maxillofacial surgeon.
Since all these specialist doctors are available in our District Hospitals and Government Medical Colleges, people can avail treatment for Mucormycosis in these hospitals apart from Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru and other designated regional hospitals, he added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan too said black fungus cases must be brought to the notice of the government authorities, as it is a notifiable disease.
"Government is providing treatment for black fungus in all the 6 division centers of the state and Mysuru Medical College will be providing the treatment in this region. Apart from this, the treatment is available in private hospitals also," he was quoted as saying by his office in Mysuru.
The Dy CM, who also heads the state's COVID task force said the drug required to treat black fungus is at present being imported and now a few companies have come forward to manufacture it here itself.
"Once the production begins here, it would resolve the issue of shortage of the drug," he said.
The daily coronavirus cases in Karnataka is witnessing a decline as the state registered 28,869 new infections, which was outnumbered by recoveries with 52,257 discharges.
However the number of fatalities continued to remain high at 548, the health department said on Thursday.
While the total caseload was 23.35 lakh, the toll stood at 23,854.
During the last two days, the state has reported over 30,000 fresh cases, which was around 40,000 last week.
Out of the 28,869 new cases reported on Thursday, 9,409 were from Bengaluru Urban alone, and the city saw 25,776 discharges.
As of May 20 evening, cumulatively 23,35,524 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 23,854 deaths and 17,76,695 discharges, the department said in its bulletin.
Total number of active cases in the state stood at 5,34,954.
While the positivity rate for the day stood at 23.91 per cent, case fatality rate (CFR) was at 1.89 per cent.
Among 548 deaths reported today, 289 are from Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural 37, Hassan 23, Ballari 22, Tumakuru 21, Shivamogga 17, Mysuru 16, followed by others.
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 9,409, Mysuru 1,879, Tumakuru 1,796, Ballari 1,109, followed by others.
Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 10,94,253, followed by Mysuru 1,19,632 and Tumakuru 89.179.
A total of over 2.83 crore samples have been tested so far, out of which 1,20,711 were tested on Thursday alone.