Gov’t advised to establish emergency response against diseases affecting Covid-19 survivors

By Ben Musanje

13^th Oct 2021

The Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS-Uganda), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that promotes the rights of poor and vulnerable people with special focus on health and socioeconomic rights, has alerted the government of Uganda to monitor Covid-19 survivors in order to avoid cases of black fungus disease.

This follows reports in India showing about 50,000 people have died of the deadly ‘black fungus’ called mucormycosis in a growing epidemic that mainly affects Covid-19 survivors.

According to medical experts, mucormycosis, a secondary bacterial or fungal infection affects the nose, eyes and sometimes the brain and usually strikes 12-18 days after recovery from Covid-19.

Interacting with the health journalists under their umbrella body the Health Journalists Network Uganda-HEJNU in Kampala about affects of Covid-19, the HEPS Director Dennis Kibira says that the government should consider procuring an emergency medicine called Amphotericin B that treats this black fungal for easy responses once such cases are registered.

Meanwhile, Kibira who is a pharmacist has urged government to limit on receiving donated Covid-19 vaccines but focus more on procurement since most of the donated drugs are received with few months to expire and are difficult to be planned for.