State to declare Black Fungus as notified disease

The Health Department will declare Mucormycosis (Black Fungus) as a notified disease to identify and track emerging cases in the State, said Health, Medical and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal. The State reported nine such cases so far, he informed.

At a press conference on Monday, Mr. Singhal said that Mucormycosis has been brought under the list of diseases eligible for treatment under Aarogyasri and permissions were given to all the teaching hospitals and empanelled private hospitals with facilities to treat such cases.

Mr. Singhal said that the State is also going to float tenders for the purchase of medicines required to treat the disease in addition to the allocation made by the Central government and added that the steps to identify the presence of the infection at an early stage are being taken by the Health Department.

Once declared as a notified disease all the hospitals should mandatorily inform details of detection and treatment for the disease.

Fever survey

Mr. Singhal said during the three-day fever survey conducted across the State, over 91,000 persons with fever and other COVID-19 symptoms were identified. He said all the cases will be followed up and further action will be taken up by the teams concerned.

Mr. Singhal said that doctors hired for tele-medicine have reached out to over 24,000 persons, including patients under home isolation and those identified in the fever survey, in the past 24 hours. He said that in the next two to three days over 50,000 patients will be reached through 104.