News Analysis India

Tag: Pandemic

  • Gujarat: COVID-19 survivor ends life over fear of mucormycosis

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: An 80-year-old man from Ahmedabad who had recovered from coronavirus allegedly committed suicide out of fear of contracting the mucormycosis infection, police said on Monday.

    Mucormycosis, also known as the black fungus, is a serious infection which has been found in several COVID-19 patients in various states.

    According to police, the victim used to live with his wife at the Aman Apartments in Paldi area of the city.

    He allegedly consumed a pesticide on the terrace of his apartment on Thursday and died at a private hospital on Saturday, Paldi police station’s inspector J M Solanki said.

    The man contracted COVID-19 some time back and had recovered. He was not diagnosed with mucorycosis, but he developed a fear for it after he got mouth sores, he said.

    The victim also left behind a suicide note in which he mentioned the reason behind his extreme step and expressed fear that he may suffer due to mucormycosis as he had just recovered from COVID-19 and also had diabetes.

    “The man was scared as he learnt that the black fungus mostly targets those who had contracted coronavirus and people having diabetes. He also mentioned (in the suicide note) that the treatment may not yield any result and he would suffer due to that infection in future,” Solanki said, based on the suicide note and statements of his family members.

    The victim was from a well-off family and his fear was more psychological than about his financial condition and the ability to pay for the treatment, the official said.

    “Since he had developed some mouth sores, he was under the notion that he had contracted mucormycosis and may not recover from it. He went to the terrace of his apartment on Thursday and consumed a pesticide to end his life,” he said.

    The police have registered an accidental death report and are conducting further probe into the incident, he added.

  • Pursuing Pfizer, J&J and Moderna since mid-2020 for earliest possible vaccine imports: Government

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid continuing criticism of its vaccination policy, the Centre on Thursday tasked its top COVID-19 advisor VK Paul to bust “myths” with “facts”. Getting right on to the task, Paul charged that the vaccination drive had been going on smoothly until the states sought “opening up of the process and decentralisation”. 

    He listed out seven widely talked about “myths” on the vaccination drive.  Shifting the blame for a chaotic vaccination drive to the states, Paul said: “The Centre ran the entire vaccine program from January to April, and it was quite well-administrated compared to the situation in May (new policy came in force from May 1, allowing those above 18 years for vaccinations).”

    Responding to criticism from some state governments that the Centre should be procuring vaccines instead of the states, Paul said, “The GoI has merely enabled the states to try procuring vaccines on their own, on their explicit requests.”

    Hitting out at some states over failed global tenders to procure vaccinations, Paul said, “States, that had not even achieved good coverage of healthcare workers and frontline workers in three months wanted to open up the process of vaccination and wanted more decentralisation.”

    He added, “Health is a state subject & the liberalised vaccine policy was a result of the incessant requests being made by the states to give states more power. The fact that global tenders have not given any results only reaffirms what we have been telling the states from day one: that vaccines are in short supply in the world and it is not easy to procure them at short notice.”

    Responding to claims that the Centre has not approved vaccines available globally, Paul said it has proactively eased the entry of vaccines approved by US FDA, EMA, UK’s MHRA and Japan’s PMDA, and WHO’s Emergency Use Listing into India in April.

    At times, Paul’s exercise of busting the myths included thinly-veiled attacks on opposition leaders. “The behaviour of some of our leaders, who in spite of full knowledge of the facts on vaccine supply, appear on TV daily and create panic among the people is very unfortunate,” he said without naming anyone.

  • India’s Covid-19 death toll crosses 3-lakh mark; new cases dip to 2.22 lakh

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India recorded 2,22,315 new coronavirus infections in a single day, the lowest in round 38 days, pushing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,67,52,447, while the death toll crossed the 3-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

    The death toll climbed to 3,03,720 with 4,454 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    India registered 2,17,353 new infections in a span of 24 hours on April 16.

    The active cases have further reduced to 27,20,716 comprising 10.17 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 88.69 per cent.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,37,28,011, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.14 per cent, the data stated.

    India reported 2,22,315 new #COVID19 cases, 3,02,544 discharges and 4,454 deaths in last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 2,67,52,447 & the death toll to 3,03,720: Union Health Ministry.Express Photo | @shrirambn pic.twitter.com/HNld2zyYB1
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 24, 2021

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.

    According to the ICMR, 33,05,36,064 samples have been tested up to May 23 with 19,28,127 samples being tested on Sunday.

  • Small intestine infected by black fungus found in patients at Delhi hospital, doctors say ‘rare’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Two patients at a leading private facility here, both of whom had tested positive for COVID-19, were diagnosed with Mucormycosis in the small intestine, which the doctors termed as “rare” cases.

    Mucormycosis or black fungus most commonly involves rhino-orbital-cerebral system or the lungs.

    Intestinal or GI mucormycosis is a very “rare disease”, and most commonly involves the stomach or large intestine, according to doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here.

    A 56-year-old Delhi resident, who had lost three of his family members including his wife to COVID, had barely completed the last rites of his wife when he experienced pain in his abdomen.

    He had tested positive for coronavirus along with his wife and had been experiencing mild symptoms initially, the hospital said in a statement.

    His abdominal pain was considered gastritis or stress-related and self-medication for acidity was done, which delayed proper treatment by three days, it said.

    He was finally evaluated in the COVID emergency of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital by Dr Ushast Dhir, senior consultant in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation, it said.

    The CT scan revealed that the first part of his small intestine or jejunum had perforated. His COVID ailment also had worsened by now requiring ventilator support. The patient was admitted and taken up urgently for surgery, hospital authorities said.

    “Ulceration of jejunum in the patient raised my suspicion of fungal disease, and the patient was immediately started on anti-fungal treatment. We sent the portion of removed intestine for biopsy,” the doctor said.

    In another case, a 68-year-old man, who was happy to know that his father had recovered from COVID-19, started having mild abdominal pain. He was a diabetic and had received steroids for treatment of COVID. The patient had no associated fever and pain was very mild.

    His clinical examination also did not show any signs of intestinal perforation, the statement said. But, high index of suspicion lead Dr Piyush Ranjan, senior consultant of medical gastroenterology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, to get an urgent CT scan of the patient.

    The CT scan revealed small intestinal perforation similar to the first one, it added. “The biopsy confirmed our worst fear of mucormycosis of small intestine in both patients. Both these patients had COVID and had diabetes, but only one of them had received steroids,” the hospital said in the statement.

    Both these patients were operated by Dhir, who revealed that these patient had “similar intra-operative findings” where jejunum had out-pouchings called diverticula and these diverticula had perforated along with surrounding ulceration, it said.

    “These patients, in the majority, are immune-compromised. The majority of gastro-intestinal mucormycosis is seen in organ transplant recipients. The cases treated at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital were unique as they had Covid and small intestine (instead of stomach/colon) was involved in both cases,” the statement said.

    GI mucormycosis is rare and the patient presents with vague abdominal symptoms. In recent times, a history of COVID-19 exposure along with treatment with steroids should warrant an early CT scan of the abdomen, doctors said.

    Over 60 cases of black fungus have been reported at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital till date, amid the second wave of the pandemic, a senior official said.

  • COVID-19 situation stabilising with positivity rate, daily cases, active cases reducing: Government

    Eight states have more than 1 lakh active cases while 18 states have over 15 per cent positivity rate, joint secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said during the briefing.

  • Small intestine infected by black fungus found in patients at Delhi hospital, doctors say ‘rare’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Two patients at a leading private facility here, both of whom had tested positive for COVID-19, were diagnosed with Mucormycosis in the small intestine, which the doctors termed as “rare” cases.

    Mucormycosis or black fungus most commonly involves rhino-orbital-cerebral system or the lungs.

    Intestinal or GI mucormycosis is a very “rare disease”, and most commonly involves the stomach or large intestine, according to doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here.

    A 56-year-old Delhi resident, who had lost three of his family members including his wife to COVID, had barely completed the last rites of his wife when he experienced pain in his abdomen.

    He had tested positive for coronavirus along with his wife and had been experiencing mild symptoms initially, the hospital said in a statement.

    His abdominal pain was considered gastritis or stress-related and self-medication for acidity was done, which delayed proper treatment by three days, it said.

    He was finally evaluated in the COVID emergency of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital by Dr Ushast Dhir, senior consultant in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation, it said.

    The CT scan revealed that the first part of his small intestine or jejunum had perforated. His COVID ailment also had worsened by now requiring ventilator support. The patient was admitted and taken up urgently for surgery, hospital authorities said.

    “Ulceration of jejunum in the patient raised my suspicion of fungal disease, and the patient was immediately started on anti-fungal treatment. We sent the portion of removed intestine for biopsy,” the doctor said.

    In another case, a 68-year-old man, who was happy to know that his father had recovered from COVID-19, started having mild abdominal pain. He was a diabetic and had received steroids for treatment of COVID. The patient had no associated fever and pain was very mild.

    His clinical examination also did not show any signs of intestinal perforation, the statement said. But, high index of suspicion lead Dr Piyush Ranjan, senior consultant of medical gastroenterology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, to get an urgent CT scan of the patient.

    The CT scan revealed small intestinal perforation similar to the first one, it added. “The biopsy confirmed our worst fear of mucormycosis of small intestine in both patients. Both these patients had COVID and had diabetes, but only one of them had received steroids,” the hospital said in the statement.

    Both these patients were operated by Dhir, who revealed that these patient had “similar intra-operative findings” where jejunum had out-pouchings called diverticula and these diverticula had perforated along with surrounding ulceration, it said.

    “These patients, in the majority, are immune-compromised. The majority of gastro-intestinal mucormycosis is seen in organ transplant recipients. The cases treated at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital were unique as they had Covid and small intestine (instead of stomach/colon) was involved in both cases,” the statement said.

    GI mucormycosis is rare and the patient presents with vague abdominal symptoms. In recent times, a history of COVID-19 exposure along with treatment with steroids should warrant an early CT scan of the abdomen, doctors said.

    Over 60 cases of black fungus have been reported at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital till date, amid the second wave of the pandemic, a senior official said.

  • Black fungus declared a notifiable disease in Uttarakhand

    By PTI
    DEHRADUN: With black fungus cases rising in Uttarakhand, it was declared a notifiable disease in the state under the Epidemic Act, 1897 on Saturday.

    So far, 64 people have been infected with black fungus in the state and of them, four have died.

    Black fungus or mucormycosis has been declared a notifiable disease for its coordinated treatment as a growing number of people are contracting the infection post-COVID-19, Health Secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey said.

    The state government also issued an SOP on Saturday for the judicious distribution of Amphotericin B, a drug used in treating black fungus patients.

    Amphotericin B should be provided to only government medical colleges, institutions and Covid-dedicated hospitals on payment after they formally requisition for its supply on the prescribed format giving details of the patients and nature of the infection.

    Rashmi Pant and Kailash Gunjyal have been appointed as the nodal officers for scrutinising the requisitions for Kumaon and Garhwal regions respectively, the SOP said.

    The current SOP supersedes an earlier order issued on May 18 for the judicious use of the drug, it said.

  • Over 8 lakh migrant workers left Delhi in first four weeks of lockdown: Report

    The number started declining from thereon, 2,12,448 left in the second week, 1,22,490 in the third week and 92, 490 in the fourth week.

  • COVID-19: HP CM launches home isolation kits; says pandemic nothing less than war

    By PTI
    SHIMLA: Calling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic “nothing less than a war”, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday launched home isolation kits for infected patients under home isolation.

    Such kits contain ‘chawan prash’, ‘kaada’, protective masks, hand sanitisers, medicines, CM’s message, among others.

    These kits will be provided to COVID-19 patients under home isolation. Around 90 per cent of over 31,000 active cases in the state are in home isolation.

    The chief minister also launched ‘Himachal COVID Care’ mobile application for helping in the speedy recovery of patients in home isolation.

    An ‘E-Sanjeevani Specialist OPD’ mobile application was also introduced wherein as many as 70 specialists of AIIMS Bilaspur will provide advice to state residents through tele-medicine service.

  • Record 20.66 lakh COVID tests done in a day in India: Government

    Over 19.33 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country under the inoculation drive against COVID-19, the statement said.