Mucormycosis: The ‘black fungus’ maiming Covid patients in India

Mucormycosis is a very rare infection. It is caused by exposure to mucor mould which is commonly found in soil, plants, manure, and decaying fruits and vegetables. It affects the sinuses, the brain and the lungs and can be life-threatening in diabetic or severely immunocompromised individuals, such as cancer patients or people with HIV/AIDS.

Doctors believe mucormycosis, which has an overall mortality rate of 50%, may be being triggered by the use of steroids, a life-saving treatment for severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Steroids reduce inflammation in the lungs for COVID-19 and appear to help stop some of the damage that can happen when the body’s immune system goes into overdrive to fight off coronavirus. But they also reduce immunity and push up blood sugar levels in both diabetics and non-diabetic COVID-19 patients. It’s thought that this drop in immunity could be triggering these cases of mucormycosis.

Doctors believe mucormycosis, which has an overall mortality rate of 50%, may be being triggered by the use of steroids, a life-saving treatment for severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients

Patients suffering from the fungal infection typically have symptoms of stuffy and bleeding nose; swelling of and pain in the eye; drooping of eyelids; and blurred and finally, loss of vision. There could be black patches of skin around the nose. Doctors say most of their patients arrive late, when they are already losing vision, and doctors have to surgically remove the eye to stop the infection from reaching the brain.

Doctors say that the current strain is virulent sending blood sugar soaring to very high levels. They also observe the fungal infection affecting a lot of young people. Doctors therefore suggest that one way to stall the possibility of the fungal infection is to make sure that patients – both in treatment and recovery- are administered the right dose and duration of steroids.  
Source : BBC