Ajaz Ali
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Monday declared Mucormycosis or Black Fungus as an epidemic in the Union Territory and warned the medical staff of strict action for spreading any information or material of management of the disease without permission, in the public domain.
A notification in this regard was issued on Monday by Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education department under Section 2 of the Epidemic Disease Act 1897, on the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
“All the Government and private health facilities, Medical Colleges are required to follow the guidelines for screening, diagnosis, management of Mucormycosis, issued by the MoHFW (Gol)/ICMR/Government of Jammu and Kashmir as amended from time to time and make it mandatory for all these facilities to report suspected and confirmed cases to Health Department through District Level Chief Officers and Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP),” reads the notification.
“No person/ institution or organization will spread any Information or material for management of Mucormycosis without prior permission from Director Health Services, Jammu/Kashmir,” it adds.
The notification further says that all persons, institutions and the organisations have been barred from using print, electronic or any other media for Mucormycosis without prior permission from the Director Health Service Jammu/ Kashmir.
“In case of disobedience, the Direction Health Services, Jammu/ Kashmir has been authorized to constitute a District Committee headed by Chief Medical Officer or the concerned District which will have specialist of internal Medicine, Ophthalmology, GNT and Epidemiologist as members to review any disobeying by the person/ institution or organization,” it says.
It further adds that the violators will be punished under Section 188 of Indian Penal Code.
On Saturday, J&K reported first death of patient with Mucormycosis at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu prompting an alert by the health experts in Kashmir.
The “Covid-triggered” black fungus infection is rising in India. So far, over 7,000 people have been infected with the disease and over 200 have lost their lives.
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