Jammu: The Union Territory on Friday reported first casualty to Black Fungus as a 40-year old man died due to this infection at the Government Medical College Jammu.
Sources said that the deceased, who was earlier infected Corinavirus, had become negative to COVID-19.
Confirming death due to Black Fungus, GMC Principal Dr Shashi Sudan Sharma said that the deceased’s sugar level had been 900 and his condition was critical when admitted in the GMC Hospital here previous day. Steroids induced with uncontrolled diabetes is also one of the reasons for Black Fungus, she said, adding it is an avoidable complication that can be restricted by strictly monitoring the blood sugar levels of COVID patients put on steroids.
However, Black Fungs (mucormycosis) is not a communicable disease and the spores of an “opportunistic fungs’’ known as Mucor are in plenty in the air and these may start germinating in the eyes and the nasal mucosa and start penetrating the eyeballs, brain, sinuses and facial bones etc., she added. It is a “disease of modernisation’’ which is mostly likely in cases of excessive treatment like cancer or organ transplant, Dr Sharma said, adding that they have enough medicine stocks to deal with this disease.
