The Uttarakhand Government has notified the Black Fungus (Mucormycosis) as an epidemic. This follows the direction of the Union government to all the states and Union Territories (UT) to make black fungus a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897. In an order the secretary of health, Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey said on Saturday that in view of the increase in the cases of the disease and its occurrence as a side effect in Covid -19 patients, the Mucormycosis is declared as a notifiable disease in Uttarakhand.

As per the act a notified disease is the one which is required by the law to be reported to the government authorities. It helps the authorities to monitor the disease and warn about its possible outbreak.

The steps also help in coordinated and integrated treatment of the disease as per the protocol.Mucormycosis is a fungal infection which enters the respiratory tract through the nose. The symptoms of the disease are high fever, nasal congestion, headache, eye pain, impaired vision, redness in the eyes, bleeding from the nose, blackness inside the nose, loose teeth, jaw problems and chest pain.

As per the experts the covid-19 patients who are under treatment for a long time, patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or those with low immunity are under risk of getting infected with the Black Fungus.