'Black Fungus' claims 100 in Maharashtra: Health minister Rajesh Tope

Photo used for representational purpose. Pic/AFP

As with the Covid-19 scourge, Maharashtra leads in the number of deaths and cases of the dreaded dark cousin of Coronavirus -- Mucormycosis, or commonly known as 'Black Fungus'.

After the first case was detected in third week of April, the state has now recorded a staggering 1,500 Mucormycosis infections till date, said Health Minister Rajesh Tope.

"Of the 1,500 cases, there have been 100 deaths till now On May 21, we have declared it as a Notifiable Disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, making it compulsory to report each case of the Black Fungus to the state health department," Tope told IANS.

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Besides Maharashtra, other states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana have also proclaimed it as a Notifiable Disease, as Black Fungus cases have been found in at least 22 Indian states.

Several states, including Maharashtra have reported a shortage of the drug Liposomal Amphotericin-B used to treat the drug, though last week Tope announced that the Black Fungus would also be treated free by the government as with Covid-19.

Maharashtra currently has notched a whopping 86,618 Covid-19 fatalities and recorded 55,27,092 cases - just below France which has 55,81,351, ranking No. 4 in the world, besides 367,121 'active cases' being treated on date in the state.

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