After white and black fungus, Ghaziabad reports first case of yellow fungus

Even as the country is battling the second COVID-19 wave with new infections like black and white fungus cropping up, as per the latest reports, an yellow fungus case has been reported from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

As per the reports, the patient who has been diagnosed with the yellow fungus is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital of ENT surgeon Brij Pal Tyagi in Ghaziabad.

The symptoms of yellow fungus are as follows:

• Lethargy, weight loss, low appetite, or no appetite at all.

• Leakage of pus from the wound.

• It also reportedly affects the healing process of wounds and slows it down.

• It also results in sunken eyes and organ failure and eventually leads to necrosis.

Meanwhile, several states have declared Mucormycosis/ black fungus as an epidemic.

Mucormycosis was present even in the pre-Covid era, but is an opportunistic infection. The fungal infection is caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes. These molds live throughout the environment. Mucormycosis mainly affects people with damaged tissue or decreased immunity.

India has a very high incidence of mucormycosis cases when compared to other countries even prior to Covid. The incidence of mucormycosis in India is around 14/100,000 population while that in Australia is 0.06/100,000 population. The reason behind this is India's hot humid climate where the spores of mucor survive for a longer time.

However, it has become one of the rapidly spreading infections observed in those recovering from Covid-19. India has so far reported approximately cases of 8,848 mucormycosis or black fungus.

Gujarat has reported maximum of 2,281 mucormycosis cases followed by Maharashtra (2,000), Andhra Pradesh (910), Madhya Pradesh (720) Rajasthan (700), Karnataka (5,00), Haryana (250), Delhi (197), Punjab (95), Chhattisgarh (87), Bihar (56), Tamil Nadu (40), Kerala (36), Jharkhand (27), Odisha (15), Goa (12) and Chandigarh (8).