Black Fungal Disease

Just as the word of COVID-19 vaccines put millions across the country excited, doctors have forthwith waned a rare but dangerous fungal infection, Mucormycosis or Black Fungus, with patients being logged in Delhi, Mumbai, and Ahemdabad. According to the media statements, out of the total 44 cases of Mucormycosis discovered in Ahemdabad, a minimum of nine victims have died with diseases resulting in blindness for some people.

By reports, the fungal infection was just recognised hardly before the COVID-19 pandemic affected the country but is now being associated with the difficulties among the patients who healed from the novel coronavirus illness.

Almost in the last 15 days, the ENT surgeons at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) observed 13 cases of the ‘COVID-19-triggered’ fungal infection. Naming it an ‘alarming affliction’, they said, ‘although rare, is not new. What is uncommon is COVID-19 activating mucormycosis’ that can cause casualty of sight and removal of nose and jaw bone moreover.

The SGRH let out in a proclamation, “In the last 15 days, ENT surgeons have seen 13 cases of COVID-19-triggered mucormycosis in over 50 per cent patients, with loss of eyesight, and removal of the nose and jaw bone needed.”

1.Mucormycosis: ‘Serious but rare’ fungal infection

The Black Fungus or mucormycosis that has been the recent concern for the medical specialists in some towns has also been the reason for demise in transplants, and ICU and immunodeficient people even in history. Yet lately, the rare infection has registered an uptick among the healing COVID-19 sufferers.

As per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Mucormycosis is ‘serious but rare’ and is incited by a faction of moulds called micromycetes. The infection primarily impacts on the people who possess preceding health issues or put up with medications that reduce the body’s proficiency to fight infections and indisposition and are inflicted chiefly by breathing fungal spores from the atmosphere.

2.Symptoms:

When the fungus evolves in sinus and brain:

One-sided facial bulge (swelling)
Headache
Nasal or sinus blockage
Black lesions on nasal bridge or upper interior of the mouth that soon come to be more serious
Fever

Lungs’ mucormycosis:

Fever
Cough
Chest pain
Shortness of breath

Additionally, Cutaneous (skin) mucormycosis can result in blisters or ulcers, and the infected region can go black. Other signs also encompass discomfort, warmth, exaggerated redness, or growing around a wound. If the pathogen gets in the gastrointestinal area, it results in Abdominal irritation, Nausea and puking, bleeding.

3.How is Mucormycosis doctored?

As per the US CDC, “Mucormycosis is a serious infection and needs to be treated with prescription antifungal medicine, usually amphotericin B, posaconazole, or isavuconazole…Often, mucormycosis requires surgery to cut away the infected tissue.”