Black fungus scare: Karnataka govt ropes in experts to track source of Mucormycosis

As black fungus cases rise in Karnataka, the state government has roped in experts to track the possible cause of the infection. Deputy Chief Minister and state COVID task force head Dr CN Ashwath Narayan has directed the treatment protocol committee to track and find out if black fungus cases are linked to the use of industrial oxygen and its possible contamination. This comes after a meeting with the treatment protocol committee on Sunday. Therefore, a team of microbiologists will start to work towards this from Monday. The team has been asked by Narayan to find the source. 

Karnataka govt directs experts to track the possible cause of black fungus

"The country used to record about 100 cases of black fungus a year earlier but the state has recorded about 700 cases in the last week. This surge has been a cause of anxiety," the Deputy CM remarked.

In addition, he also said that Mucormycosis cases have not been spotted in other COVID hit countries, but they are occurring only in India. Therefore, he has pushed to track the source of the disease. Dr Sampath Chandra Prasad Rao, skull surgeon, Manipal Hospital (Bengaluru) while making a presentation about Mucormycosis in the meeting opined that probable reasons for the surge in black fungus may be due to ''contamination either due to low-quality cylinders or low-quality piping system at the ICU level in hospitals''. He also stated that the cause of Mucormycosis may be due 'contamination at the industry level from where the oxygen is being supplied due to low standard sterilization' among other reasons. He also credited the rise in black fungus cases due to usage of ordinary tap water in ventilators,

"To meet the rise in demand, industrial oxygen is being procured in large quantity and questions have been emanated, about, whether the oxygen supplied from industries matches with the quality of medical oxygen or not," said Dr Sampath in the meeting.

In addition, the Deputy CM of Karnataka has also directed the microbiologists to record the clinical history of the patients suffering due to black fungus and to do the data analytics. Moreover, he has also instructed for tracking the source of oxygen supply at the hospital, quality of piping and cylinders and quality of water used for ventilators, and also quality at the source point of supply at the industry and plant level.