A
growing number of current and recovered COVID-19 patients in India are
contracting a deadly and rare fungal infection, doctors told AFP Monday
as the vast nation battles to contain a massive outbreak of virus cases.
On
Monday, India reported 370,000 coronavirus infections, bringing the
total to 22.7 million cases, with more than 3,700 new deaths.
Experts said the actual number of cases and fatalities could be much higher.
Mucormycosis,
dubbed “black fungus” by doctors in India, is usually most aggressive
in patients whose immune systems are weakened by other infections.
Medical
experts said they had seen a rise in cases in India in recent weeks,
while the health ministry on Sunday released an advisory on how to treat
the infection.
“The cases of mucormycosis infection in Covid-19
patients post-recovery is nearly four to five times than those reported
before the pandemic,” Ahmedabad-based infectious diseases specialist
Atul Patel, a member of the state’s COVID-19 taskforce, told AFP.
In
the western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial hub Mumbai,
up to 300 cases have been detected, said Khusrav Bajan, a consultant at
Mumbai’s P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and a member of the state’s
COVID-19 Task Force.
At least another 300 cases have been
reported so far in four cities in Gujarat, including its largest
Ahmedabad, according to data from state-run hospitals.
The
western state ordered government hospitals to set up separate treatment
wards for patients infected with “black fungus” amid the rise in cases.
“Mucormycosis
— if uncared for — may turn fatal,” the Indian Council for Medical
Research (ICMR), the scientific agency leading the government’s
response, said in a treatment chart released on Twitter.
COVID-19
sufferers are more susceptible to contracting the fungal infection.
This includes those with uncontrolled diabetes, those who used steroids
during their virus treatment, and those who had prolonged stays in
hospital ICUs, the ICMR added.
Treatment involves surgically removing all dead and infected tissue and administering a course of anti-fungal therapy.
But
Yogesh Dabholkar, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Mumbai’s DY
Patil Hospital, told AFP that the drugs used to treat those infected
with the fungus are very expensive.
One of the treatment drugs was also running short in government hospitals due to the sudden spike, he added.
“The mortality rate is very high… Even the few that recover, only recover with extensive and aggressive surgery,” Bajan said.
“This
is a fast-moving infection. It can grow within two weeks… It’s a
Catch-22, coming out of a virus and getting into a fungal infection.
It’s really bad.”
Hope Singapore has not imported the black fungus disease from India yet.
LIPS
4 comments:
Singapore is like a rubbish bin or prostitute. All sorts of rubbish worldwide are being accepted into the bin without objection or restrain. All sorts of customers, diseased or not, are received with open legs as long as they have the means to pay and the wherewithal to smooth-talk or bluff their way through.
How can a rubbish bin prevent any contaminated dirty item from being thrown in?
How can a prostitute stop or prevent any diseased customer from having physical contact to transmit the deadly fungus or virus into her body?
As long ad Singapore behaves like a rubbish bin or a hard-up prostitute, there is no way to stop or prevent any dirt, filth, shit, disease, bacteria, fungus, virus or poisonous substance from coming in
This is the price to pay for being stupid!
The Indian News Sites are digging into the Wuhan theory big time. They are accusing China of contemplating and developing the SARS virus as a biological weapon, based on documents said to have been discovered. Why now?
What about the USA and Japan already testing and using biological weapons during WW2 and the Korean War? They were streets and decades ahead of China in wanting to weaponise such biological horrors. And long before China started thinking about it, they already used the Koreans and Chinese as guinea pigs to test their biological inventions. And why should not China be prepared and start talking about doing it when others are deep into it already?
The question we ought to ask now is who is most likely to use COVID19 virus as a weapon on the rest of the world if they have it? The answer is not difficult to find. Who already used biological weapons in Vietnam, Korea and Syria?
Further, which is the only country in the world that ever used the nuclear bomb on another country? Now, answer this - which country will most likely let loose the COVID19 virus based on the what they have done in the past? It does not need a rocket scientist to figure out this simple question seeking an obvious answer.
Indian national, Singaporean of Indian descent charged under Official Secrets Act
A 22-year-old Indian national and a Singaporean of Indian descent were charged by a court here on Wednesday under the Official Secrets Act for unauthorised communication about an apartment inspection.
Damandeep Singh allegedly received the information while having reasonable grounds to believe that it was communicated to him in contravention of the Official Secrets Act, said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
He received the information from Kalayarasan Karuppaya, an Indian-origin higher estate executive with the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the public housing authority.
The 44-year-old Singaporean allegedly leaked information on HDB’s impending inspections of a flat at Kim Tian Road, off the central business district, to Singh, a registered tenant of the unit, according to a Channel News Asia report.
Kalayarasan was not authorised to communicate the information to Singh, said CPIB. He did so on three occasions in May, August and September 2019.
They were charged on Wednesday over unauthorised communication about flat inspections, said the report citing a CIPB release.
Each man faces three charges for offences under the Official Secrets Act. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to two years and fined up to 2,000 Singapore dollars (USD 1,504) for each charge.
“Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and other criminal activities,” said the CPIB.
Why are HDB jobs given to foreigners and not Singaporeans? This job requires foreign skills that Singaporeans did not have?
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