Protect yourself from Black Fungus

How to prevent Mucormycosis
- Use masks if you are visiting dusty construction sites
- Wear shoes, long trousers, long sleeve shirts and gloves while handling soil (gardening), moss or manure
- Maintain personal hygiene, including thorough scrub bath
The disease can be managed by controlling diabetes, discontinuing immunomodulating drugs, reducing steroids and extensive surgical debridement- to remove all necrotic materials, according to the advisory.

DOs
- Control hyperglycemia
- Monitor blood glucose level post-COVID-19 discharge and also in diabetics
- Use steroid judiciously – correct timing, correct dose and duration
- Use clean, sterile water for humidifiers during oxygen therapy
- Use antibiotics/antifungals judiciously

Don'ts
- Do not miss warning signs and symptoms
- Do not consider all the cases with blocked nose as cases of bacterial sinusitis, particularly in the context of immunosuppression and/or COVID-19 patients on immunomodulators
- Do not hesitate to seek aggressive investigations, as appropriate (KOH staining & microscopy, culture, MALDITOF), for detecting fungal etiology
- Do not lose crucial time to initiate treatment for mucormycosis


Sakshi saini