Black fungus: Experts in Karnataka to study possible causes including industrial oxygen use
Bengaluru, May 24: Experts in Karnataka will study whether the rise in the Mucormycosis cases is linked to use of industrial oxygen and its possible contamination.
Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also the head of the state's COVID task force, held a meeting on Sunday with the treatment protocol committee where the possible sources of the infection were discussed.
Noting that the state has recorded about 700 cases of black fungus infections in the last week, he directed experts to find its source, with doubts being expressed about oxygen supply, quality of piping and cylinders used for it.
Accordingly, a team of microbiologists will start to work towards this from Monday, his office said in a release.
The country used to record about 100 cases of black fungus a year earlier but the state has recorded about 700 cases in the last week. This surge has been the cause of anxiety, Narayan was quoted as saying.
Also, black fungus cases are not spotted in other COVID hit countries, but they are occurring only in India, he said.
Dr Sampath Chandra Prasad Rao, skull surgeon, Manipal Hospital (Bengaluru) made the presentation about mucormycosis at the meeting and felt the probable reasons for the surge in black fungus may be contamination, either due to low-quality cylinders or low-quality piping system at the ICU level in hospitals.
It may also be caused because of contamination at the industry level from where the oxygen is being supplied or due to low standard of sterilization or any other such reasons.
Suspicion was raised that it may be due to usage of ordinary tap water in ventilators, Rao said.
"To meet the rise in demand, industrial oxygen is being procured in large quantity and questions have been emanated, about, whether the oxygen supplied from industries matches with the quality of medical oxygen or not. This could also be one of the reasons," he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister asked the microbiologists to record the clinical history of the patient affected by mucormycosis and to do the data analytics.
Simultaneously, he has also instructed them to study the source of oxygen supply at the hospital, quality of piping and cylinders and quality of water used for ventilators, and also quality at the source point of supply at the industry/plant level.
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SC issues contempt notice over scurrilous allegations against Telangana HC judge
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt notices to a litigant and his lawyers for making "scurrilous allegations" against a sitting judge of the Telangana High Court in their plea.
The top court, while issuing the show cause notices to the petitioner and his lawyers, refused to allow withdrawal of the petition, and said, “We cannot permit judges to be out in a box and allow any litigant to make such allegations against a judge. Here we were trying to protect lawyers.”
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a transfer plea filed by petitioner N Peddi Raju filed through advocate-on-record Ritesh Patil.
The petition involved a case in which Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had received relief from a high court in a matter under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“Here we were trying to protect lawyers, but this kind of conduct cannot be condoned,” the bench, which earlier heard another suo motu case pertaining to summoning of lawyers by the ED for rendering legal advice, said.
“Scurrilous allegations have been made against the sitting judge of Telangana High Court. It has been held (in a judgement) that it is not only a litigant but also a lawyer who signs (the petition) is guilty of contempt of court.
“We thus issue notice to Peddi Raju as well as the lawyers … and the AoR. They are directed to state why contempt should not be initiated against them. Notice returnable on August 11,” the CJI said.
A counsel sought the liberty to withdraw the remarks after the court expressed strong displeasure. However, the bench dismissed the request.
“File apology …we will see whether to consider or not. We will see the apology is genuine or not. When we expressed displeasure at the language, liberty was sought to withdraw. We dismissed the request,” the bench said.
The case stems from the Telangana High Court's decision to quash a criminal case registered against the chief minister under the SC/ST Act.
The petitioner later approached the top court with a transfer plea, alleging bias and impropriety on the part of the high court judge.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared on behalf of the chief minister.
