Unable to bear the pain of his wife's death due to black fungus, a man in Belagavi district of Karnataka, consumed poison along with his four children on Saturday.
The incident took place in Boragal village under Hukkeri taluk. The deceased were identified as Gopala Hadimani (46), his children - Sowmya Hadimani (19), Shwetha Hadimani (16), Saakshi Hadimani (11) and Srujan Hadimani (8).
According to police, Jaya, wife of Gopala, died due to black fungus on July 6. Not able to bear the pain of her untimely death, Gopala died by suicide along with his children on Saturday. "Further investigation is underway," Sankeshwara police told IANS.
What's Black Fungus?
It was during the second wave of coronavirus pandemic that a majority of Indians started hearing about Mucormycosis, popularly known as black fungus infection. Even though black fungus infection was with us for years, the coronavirus pandemic increased the number of Mucormycosis cases, and it became a major health concern in India due to the high fatality rate.
Connection between Black Fungus and Diabetes
Fatalities due to black fungus infection in the country during the second wave of the pandemic were 3,129. 85.6 percent of the people infected with black fungus had Covid, while 64.11 percent had diabetes as a comorbidity. 52.69 percent of those infected were on steroids.
The statistics clearly indicate that diabetes had a crucial role in triggering black fungus infection on the human body.
"40,845 cases of Mucormycosis. 64.1% had known diabetes. Probably half of the rest had undiagnosed diabetes or Prediabetes. Again emphasizes the importance of detecting and controlling diabetes," said Dr V Mohan, Chairman, of Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre.
When should you seek medical care?
Even though Mucormycosis infection could turn lethal, timely intervention with medications could save the life of the person. If the treatment gets delayed, it could often lead to the removal of the infected organ through surgery.
There are certain symptoms of black fungus infection that you should not ignore. Headache is one of the classic symptoms of black fungus infection. It should be noted that headache is also a symptom of Covid infection, but if a person is suffering from persistent headache even after 14 days, it is very much necessary to avail immediate medical care.
