India battles rash of ‘black fungus’ cases hitting COVID patients

India battles rash of ‘black fungus’ cases hitting COVID patients

Mucormycosis, a rare fungal disease, usually infects people whose system has been compromised.

India has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting COVID-19 patients, officials said, piling pressure on hospitals battling the world’s highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus.

Mucormycosis, or “black fungus”, usually infects people whose system has been compromised, causing blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or diplopia , pain , breathing difficulties and coughing blood.

Doctors believe that the utilization of steroids to treat severe COVID-19 might be causing the rash of cases because those drugs reduce immunity and push up sugar levels.

Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said during a letter to state governments that mucormycosis had emerged as a replacement challenge for COVID-19 patients on steroid therapy and people with pre-existing diabetes.

“This mycosis is resulting in prolonged morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients,” he said within the letter on Thursday.

Agarwal gave no numbers of the mucormycosis cases nationwide but Maharashtra, one among the states worst hit within the second wave of coronavirus infections, has reported 1,500 cases of it.

Agarwal asked state governments to declare it as a “notifiable disease” under the Epidemics Act, meaning they need to spot and track every case.

India on Thursday reported 276,110 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours, slightly above each day earlier but well below the 400,000 high seen at the start of this month during a devastating second wave.

The total caseload stands at 25.77 million, the world’s second highest after the us . Deaths rose by 3,874 overnight, taking the entire official tally to 287,122.

But with hospitals and crematoria overflowing and therefore the health system overwhelmed, it's widely accepted that the official figures grossly underestimate the important effects of the epidemic, with some experts saying infections and deaths might be five to 10 times higher.

The second wave has penetrated deep into the countryside and therefore the additional burden of mucormycosis has hit a rural health system ill-equipped to cope.

SP Kalantari, a doctor based in Sevagram, a town in Maharashtra, said that a team including ear, nose and throat surgeons, ophthalmologists and neurologists was needed to treat mucormycosis.

Unfortunately, this type of team doesn't exist in rural areas,” Kalantari said.