India is now reporting nearly 9,000 cases of mucormycosis in coronavirus patients or those who have recovered from the disease. Mucormycosis is usually a rare condition that has a mortality rate of 50 percent.
According to the BBC, mucormycosis, often called “black fungus” is caused by exposure to mucor mold, commonly found in soil, plants, manure, and decaying fruits and vegetables.
Symptoms of the infection usually show up 12 to 18 days after recovering from COVID-19. According to FOX 8, the fungus spreads through the respiratory tract and erodes facial structures. Sometimes, doctors have to surgically remove the eye to stop the infection from reaching the brain and killing the patient.
Steroids are extremely useful in reducing inflammation in the lungs of COVID patients, but there are side effects that have to be monitored closely. Steroids also reduce immunity and push up blood sugar levels in both diabetics and non-diabetic Covid-19 patients.
On Saturday, federal minister Sadananda Gowda said nearly 9,000 cases had been reported in India so far, leading to a shortage of Amphotericin B, the drug used to treat the condition.
The anti-fungal medication is an intravenous injection which costs 3,500 rupees ($48) a dose and has to be administered every day up to eight weeks.
The western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra have reported more than half of the reported cases. At least 15 more states have reported between eight and 900 cases. Following the rise in cases, India’s 29 states have been told to declare the disease an epidemic.
Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital is a state-run, 1,100-bed institution in the central Indian city of Indore. Just last week, the hospital had admitted eight patients with mucormycosis, and by Saturday evening, admissions for the disease had jumped to 185.
Eleven wards with a total of 200 beds were set up for the black fungus patients. More than 80 percent of the patients needed surgery immediately, Dr. VP Pandey, head of the hospital’s department of medicine, told the BBC.
“The black fungus infection has now become more challenging than Covid-19. If patients are not treated in time and properly, the mortality rate can go up to 94 percent. The cost of treatment is expensive, and the drugs are in [short supply],” Dr. Pandey said.
“It is a new challenge and things are looking bleak,” said Ambrish Mithal, the chairman and head of the endocrinology and diabetes department at Max Healthcare, a chain of private hospitals in India.
