Nearly 5,500 cases of black fungus across 18 states: Govt

NEW DELHI: As many as 5,424 cases of mucormycosis, or black fungus, have been reported from 18 states, with a majority of them in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Monday.

“900,000 vials of Amphotericin-b are being imported by the central government for the treatment of black fungus. Of this, 50,000 vials have been received and around 300,000 vials will be available in the next seven days,” he said.

Speaking at the 27th group of ministers (GOM) meeting on Covid-19, he said that Gujarat reported 2,165 cases, Maharashtra 1,188, Uttar Pradesh 663, Madhya Pradesh 590, Haryana 339 and Andhra Pradesh 248 cases.

“Out of these, we have seen

that 4, 556 cases have a history of Covid-19 infection, while 875 cases are among non-covid patients. Diabetes was present in 55% of the patients,” he said.

On Genome sequencing, Vardhan informed that 25,739

samples have been sequenced and variant B.1.617 has been found in 5,261 samples, which is almost 65% of the samples, “making it one of the most common mutations to be detected till now”.