Chennai,  The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a special task force to tackle mucormycosis or black fungus. The 12-member committee is chaired by the Director of Medical Education (DME) and will advise the state government on issues related to mucormycosis, the fungal disease which is reported in patients recovering from Covid-19 infection.

According to a statement by the state health department, the committee which comprises experts from the public and private sector, including medical experts, would advise the state government on prevention and treatment of the disease. This task force would also update the government on the latest international research on mucormycosis.

The task force which comprises the Director of Medical Education as the Chairman will have the Director of Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Ophthalmic hospital as the member secretary. The Directors of Medical and Rural Health services and Public Health and Preventive Medicine are among the members of the committee.

ENT specialists -- Mohan Kameswaran of Madras ENT Research Foundation and Babu Manohar of Apollo hospitals; infectious disease specialists -- Subramanian Swaminathan of Global Hospital and V. Ramasubramanian of Apollo hospitals; Mohan Rajan of Rajan Eye Care; Microbiologists -- Anupama Nithya of Sri Ramachandra Hospital and Balajee of Global hospital; the Heads of ENT and Microbiology departments of Madras Medical College are the other members of the task force.