Centre issues black fungus advisory to states, gives warning about other infections

The Union Health Ministry on Friday issued a notice to all the states and Union territories appealing to them to assure that all the Covid-19 hospitals and other healthcare facilities about infection prevention and control practices. This comes at the time when PM Modi is emphasizing the threat of Mucormycosis popularly known as black fungus.

Deliberating on the sudden rise in the cases, the Centre revealed the states must be geared to deal with “secondary and opportunistic fungal infections which are getting amplified due to the present surge in Covid cases”.

In the advisory, the Central government stated that eventually the states and Union territories are anticipated to set up surveillance with a focus on the ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated blood stream infection, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, surgical site infections, gastro-intestinal outbreaks.

The Centre added the hospitals must be all set and enforce an overall Infection Prevention Control programme adhering to the ministry’s National Guidelines for Infection and Control in Healthcare Facilities.

The sudden increase in the cases of Mucormycosis during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic is at the time when the health infrastructure of the country is severely fractured. The Centre said, “Infection Prevention and Control practices need to be enhanced in ICUs using a bundle-approach to prevent device-associated infections such as ventilator-associated pneumonia or catheter-associated blood stream, urinary infections etc.”

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