Black Fungus claims 13 lives in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: The deadly black fungus — Mucormycosis — has claimed six more lives in the Uttar Pradesh capital in the past 24 hours while 34 more patients were admitted to hospitals. So far, the number of deaths due to Black Fungus stands at 13 while black fungus cases tally has reached 127. All the patients had earlier contracted Covid-19.

Among the six deceased, four were under treatment at King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and two at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS). Those who died in KGMU had recovered from Covid. Three victims were women – a 38-year-old from Meerut, 62-year-old from Gorakhpur and 65-year-old from Faizabad. The fourth victim was a 73-year-old man from Kanpur.

Barring the Meerut woman, who had cancer, the other three were diabetic. All of them had severe lung infection during Covid and were given steroids.

Sudhir Singh, spokesperson KGMU, said, “All four patients were referred in advanced stage from hospitals in other districts.”

The two patients who died in SGPGIMS were natives of Gorakhpur and Prayagraj.
Meanwhile, of the 34 new cases, 23 have been admitted to KGMU, nine to a private hospital on Faizabad Road and two to a private hospital in Chowk.

At present, the city has 114 black fungus patients and of these, 65 are in KGMU, 14 in SGPGIMS, eight in RMLIMS and the remaining in two private hospitals. To cope with the increasing number of black fungus patients, the KGMU has started a separate 30-bed ward for black fungus patients in the medicine department.

Head, medicine department, Prof Virendra Atam said that all black fungus patients are being treated in the medicine department and more beds will be added if the surge continues.