Mucormycosis: The 'black fungus' maiming Covid patients in India

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First confirmed case of COVID-19 Mucormycosis is found in U.S. Following a rapid spread from its origin in Wuhan, China, the first U.S. case of the 2019 novel coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19 Mucormycosis which is a very rare "black fungus" is confirmed in a man from Washington state. A "black fungus" appears more frequently in India’s COVID-19 patients. As The Guardian detailed on Tuesday, a rare and fatal “black fungus” that invades the brain is being increasingly seen in vulnerable patients in India. Professor Peter Collignon, who sits on the WHO’s expert committee on antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases, said that the infection, called mucormycosis, “is very serious, has a high mortality, and you need surgery and lots of drugs to get on top of it once it takes hold.” Collignon added that many patients with severe coronavirus are taking medications, such as steroids, that lower the body’s ability to fight off infections such as mucormycosis. On Saturday morning, Dr Akshay Nair, a Mumbai-based eye surgeon, was waiting to operate on a 25-year-old woman who had recovered from a bout of Covid-19 three weeks ago. Inside the surgery, an ear, nose and throat specialist was already at work on the patient, a diabetic. He had inserted a tube in her nose and was removing tissues infected with mucormycosis, a rare but dangerous fungal infection. This aggressive infection affects the nose, eye and sometimes the brain. After his colleague finished, Dr Nair would carry out a three hour procedure to remove the patient's eye. "I will be removing her eye to save her life. That's how this disease works," Dr Nair told me. Even as a deadly second wave of Covid-19 ravages India, doctors are now reporting a rash of cases involving a rare infection - also called the "black fungus" - among recovering and recovered Covid-19 patients. It was found in Washington State, What is mucormycosis? 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 is ubiquitous and found in soil and air and even in the nose and mucus of healthy people," says Dr Nair. 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. line 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. Nurse preparing with medical treatment with Dexamethasone vial in the hospitaimage copyrightGetty Images image captionSteroids are an essential life-saving drug for Covid patients "Diabetes lowers the body's immune defences, coronavirus exacerbates it, and then steroids which help fight Covid-19 act like fuel to the fire," says Dr Nair. Dr Nair - who works in three hospitals in Mumbai, one of the worst-hit cities in the second wave - says he has already seen some 40 patients suffering from the fungal infection in April. Many of them were diabetics who had recovered from Covid-19 at home. Eleven of them had to have an eye surgically removed. Between December and February, just six of his colleagues in five cities - Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune - reported 58 cases of the infection. Most of the patients contracted it between 12 to 15 days after recovery from Covid-19. Mumbai's busy Sion Hospital has reported 24 cases of the fungal infection in the past two months, up from six cases a year, according to Dr Renuka Bradoo, head of the hospital's ear, nose and throat wing. Eleven of them had to lose an eye, and six of them died. Most of her patients are middle-aged diabetics who were struck down by the fungus two weeks after recovering from Covid-19. "We are already seeing two to three cases a week here. It's a nightmare inside a pandemic," she told me. In the southern city of Bengaluru, Dr Raghuraj Hegde, an eye surgeon, tells a similar story. He has seen 19 cases of mucormycosis in the past two weeks, most of them young patients. "Some were so sick that we couldn't even operate on them." Doctors say they are surprised by the severity and the frequency of this fungal infection during the second wave, compared to some cases during the first wave last year. Dr Nair says he has come across not more than 10 cases in Mumbai in the past two years. "This year is something different," he says. In Bengaluru, Dr Hegde had never seen more than one or two cases a year in over a decade of practice. Coronavirus Alert: May 12, 2021 | Everyday Health The Indian variant has spread to 49 countries. Latest data from the WHO shows that the variant of the coronavirus first detected in India, which is believed to be driving the surge in cases there, has now been found in 49 countries, according to the Washington Post. The Southern Nevada Health District said Tuesday that it had detected the first known case of the variant in Clark County, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. A "black fungus" appears more frequently in India’s COVID-19 patients. As The Guardian detailed on Tuesday, a rare and fatal “black fungus” that invades the brain is being increasingly seen in vulnerable patients in India. Professor Peter Collignon, who sits on the WHO’s expert committee on antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases, said that the infection, called mucormycosis, “is very serious, has a high mortality, and you need surgery and lots of drugs to get on top of it once it takes hold.” Collignon added that many patients with severe coronavirus are taking medications, such as steroids, that lower the body’s ability to fight off infections such as mucormycosis.