Rare ‘Black Fungus,’ Mucormycosis, Infects Thousands of Covid-19

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NEW DELHI—A 52-year-old diabetic was recovering from Covid-19 at his home in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad in late April when his blood sugar levels shot up to four times the normal level. The left side of Yaseen Ahmed’s face, including his eye, nose and gums started to swell, and there was some discharge. Mr. Ahmed was diagnosed with a rare but often deadly fungal infection afflicting thousands recovering from Covid-19 in India, where doctors are running out of an antifungal drug used to treat it. The infection, mucormycosis, also known as “black fungus” because it turns body tissue black, is mostly affecting people with diabetes. With 77 million diabetics out of an adult population of more than 850 million, India has the second highest number of diabetics in the world, behind China. “We didn’t know anything about mucormycosis,” said Mr. Ahmed’s son, Wasay Ahmed. How India's Covid Crisis Got Out of Control, Alarming the World India's Covid-19 crisis has resulted in record numbers of cases and deaths. WSJ breaks down the chain of events that led to the fastest-growing wave of infection since the pandemic started, and what it means for the world. Photo: Samuel Rajkumar/Reuters The New Delhi city government said Thursday it had set up mucormycosis treatment centers at three government hospitals in the capital. Many states have reported more than 500 cases each, authorities said on May 15. The health minister for the western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial hub Mumbai, said on Thursday that 1,500 people in the state were infected. Some patients have died. Others have lost their eyesight. The condition is usually rare, infecting for example about five to 10 people a year in the U.K., a country of 67 million, said David Denning, professor of infectious diseases in global health at the University of Manchester in England and an expert in fungal infections. Many parts of India have been reporting shortages of amphotericin, an antifungal drug used to treat mucormycosis. Although the drug is manufactured in India, the sudden increase in cases has stretched supply. On Friday, the government said pharmaceutical companies were increasing production to meet the demand and authorities were seeking to import more than 350,000 vials this month. In Kota, a town in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, Toshika Saxena said she is desperately trying to find amphotericin for her mother, Vimlesh Saxena, 50, who developed swelling in the left eye one week ago after recovering from Covid-19. She needs surgery to remove infected cells but doctors won’t do it unless she can obtain the drug, Toshika Saxena said. The longer the surgery is delayed, the more the fungus will spread, potentially reaching the brain, she said.