India, in the last 24 hours, recorded 2,11,298 new Covid-19 cases. As the country is witnessing a down graph in the daily number of increasing cases after a long fight with the second wave of the Covid-19, to add to the perplexity, the cases of black fungus are on the rise in many patients battling the COVID-19 infection in Delhi. Last week, as the number of Covid patients infected with Mucormycosis spiked, the Health Ministry asked all states to declare Black Fungus infection an epidemic and report all cases. The disease has emerged as a new challenge in India’s battle against COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.
Maharashtra has reported 2,770 cases so far. Gujarat has logged 2,859 cases and Andhra Pradesh 768 cases. Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda shared data from different states and said around 30,000 extra vials of Amphotericin-B – the drug used to treat Mucormycosis – had been allocated to all states and union territories. Mucormycosis, according to the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), is a fungal infection that “mainly affects people who are dealing with medical problems that reduces their abilities to fight environmental pathogens”.
Mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, can turn dangerous if left untreated, doctors said on Friday amid reports of re-emergence of the rare deadly fungal infection among COVID-19 patients across hospitals in Delhi, Pune, and Ahmedabad.
The fungal infection is caused by a group of molds called ‘mucromycetes’. These molds live throughout the environment. Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and sickness.
The common symptoms associated with the disease include headache, facial pain, nasal congestion, loss of vision or pain in the eyes, swelling in cheeks and eyes, and black crusts in the nose. The US Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates Mucormycosis with an overall all-cause mortality rate of 54 per cent.
Medical experts believe that black fungus infection can occur if clean masks are not worn and the rooms are poorly ventilated. However, many experts say there is no clinical evidence to substantiate these reasons. Doctors at many leading hospitals here said many patients, both COVID and non-COVID ones, have presented themselves at the facilities who have been infected with Mucormycosis aka Black Fungus and had a history of exhibiting poor hygienic practices, including wearing unwashed masks for a long time. Adding to the list of causes, Dr Suresh Singh Naruka, an ENT specialist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, says that the main reason for black fungus infection is ‘improper use of steroids’. “If such patients are administered steroids, their immunity reduces further, allowing the fungus to thrive,” the doctor said, adding, steroids should be administered very judiciously after proper clinical examination by a doctor.
“In many cases, we also found that people who had contracted black fungus had self-medicated themselves on steroids, after their oxygen concentration levels had dropped, making them susceptible to this ailment which is being found more in COVID patients under treatment or recovery than others,” Naruka said.
Dr Ajay Swaroop, chairman of the ENT department at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, said, mucors live in every human body along our nasal passage and nasopharyngeal region “symbiotically”.
“Mucormycosis is affecting COVID patients more due to prolonged administration of steroids and subsequent immunocompromised state,” Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo hospital, New Delhi, told IANS.
People with diabetes, those on steroids and humidified oxygen for a long time, and COVID patients with pre-existing comorbidities are the most at risk. Others include patients like those post chemotherapies, those on long-term immunosuppressive drugs.
