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Health & Medicine
Pradeep Kumar

23/05/21 14:01 PM IST

Gujarat emerges as a hotspot for mucormycosis

In news

With over 2,000 cases, Gujarat has emerged as the hotspot for mucormycosis, or black fungus, which has already claimed more than 250 lives in the State.

Highlights
  • Gujarat has 2,281 mucormycosis patients, which is the highest for any State in the country.
  • After the cases rose significantly, the Gujarat government declared the fungal infection, which has a high fatality rate, an epidemic under the provision of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1857.
  • The State government has set up special wards in the civil hospitals in Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot to deal with the cases.
About the disease
  • Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis) is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes. 
  • Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and sickness.
  • It most commonly affects the sinuses or the lungs after inhaling fungal spores from the air.
  • It can also occur on the skin after a cut, burn, or other type of skin injury.
Source: The Hindu

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