Northeast reports first death due to mucormycosis

May 21, 2021 49 Views No Comment

Guwahati, May 21 (IANS) The northeast recorded its first death due to mucormycosis, commonly known as ‘black fungus’ when a 27-year-old man died at a private hospital here after his recovery from Covid, health officials said on Thursday.

According to the officials, the man hailed from central Assam’s Nagaon district. They said that the Assam government reported the first black fungus death to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Wednesday.

The man was a diabetic and tested positive for Covid-19 on May 6 after which he was admitted to a Covid care centre (CCC) in Nagaon district.

The patient tested negative for the virus through the Rapid Antigen Test on May 12 and was discharged from the district CCC.

He was later admitted to a private hospital in Guwahati on May 16 in a critical condition after he developed decreased vision in both eyes and other post-Covid complications.

Health officials in Guwahati said that at the moment the department does not have any data on black fungus infection in Assam.

“We are collecting data on black fungus, if any, from all the 34 districts and there is no need to panic. We have enough stock of required medicines to treat the infection if found,” a health official said refusing to be quoted.

The number of active cases in Assam rose to over 48,390 late on Wednesday night against 25,027 active cases on May 1.

Assam has so far reported 3,47,001 Covid cases, while 2,433 persons have succumbed to the dreaded disease registering the death ratio of 0.70 per cent and recovery rate of 84.97 per cent. Of the 34 districts in Assam, the situation in six districts is very serious — Kamrup Metro, where the active case tally stood at 913 on Wednesday night, followed by Nagaon (448), Cachar (438), Dibrugarh (397), Kamrup Rural (363) and Tinsukia (334). Assam’s Guwahati, also the northeastern region’s main commercial hub, falls in the Kamrup Metro district.