Black fungus: Madhya Pradesh government to conduct nasal endoscopy of Covid patients

Bhopal/Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to launch the "nasal endoscopy" campaign in view of the rise in the cases of mucormycosis or black fungus in COVID-19 patients, state Medical Education Minister Vishvas Kailash Sarang said on Wednesday.

This campaign is aimed at the early detection and treatment of mucormycosis, a rare but dangerous fungal infection.

"Given the rise in the cases of mucormycosis in COVID-19 patients, we have decided to launch the nasal endoscopy campaign for the early detection and treatment of the disease at the primary level only," a public relations department official said quoting Sarang.

He said the government will conduct the nasal endoscopy of COVID-19 patients as well as those COVID-19 survivors who are admitted in the district hospitals and the government medical colleges in the last two months for free.

Nasal endoscopy is a procedure to look at the nasal and sinus passages using an endoscope. The stock of necessary equipment for conducting nasal endoscopy will be increased in the medical colleges, the official said.

He said the Society of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists has also given its consent to conduct nasal endoscopy for free for the recovered patients for 15 days. A coordinator will be appointed by the ENT society to conduct nasal endoscopies in all the cities in Madhya Pradesh.

"The case study of black fungus will also be done during this process to know whether the infection is prevalent in urban or rural areas," he said.

Instructions were also issued to the medical colleges to conduct nasal endoscopy of the willing patients and also set up separate operation theatres for COVID-19 and non-COVID 19 patients in their institutions, he said.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has directed to set up a dedicated task force comprising the health minister, medical education minister, ENT experts, and additional chief secretaries/principal secretaries of the departments concerned for making arrangements for the treatment of black fungus.

The CM also directed the task force to start functioning immediately, the official added. According to doctors, Mucormycosis is mostly found among COVID-19 patients who have diabetes. Its symptoms include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision.