The death toll from black fungus or mucormycosis has reached 10 in north Bengal.

Sources said the most recent death was of an 80-year-old Covid-19 patient on Tuesday night. “He was admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri with symptoms of black fungus and had undergone a surgery. He hailed from Cooch Behar,” said a source.

Sandeep Sengupta, the dean of student affairs and a gynaecologist at the NBMCH, said most of the patients infected with mucormycosis were suffering from severe comorbidities because of Covid-19 or some other serious ailment.

“The patients were infected with rhino-orbital cerebral mucormycosis in which infection spreads to the brain and survival of the patients becomes difficult,” he said.

Another senior doctor at the NBMCH said the patients, especially those in the high-risk category for mucormycosis, should avoid visiting damp and dusty places for a few weeks after recovering from Covid-19. “Such environment increases the risk of black fungus infection.”