India has experienced a troubling outbreak of a coronavirus-caused fungal infection, with a death rate of nearly 50 percent – and can lead to blindness and the removal of the nose and jaw, according to local reports.
The Gujarat Health Hepartment has issued an advisory report on the condition called mucormycosis, which has been reported in COVID-19 patients in Ahmedabad and Rajkot, the Indian Express reported.
“Mucormycosis is a type of fungal disease that infects people with compromised immune systems, and with other existing diseases, is a serious infection with a death rate of nearly 50 percent,” the advisory said.
Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, a large private facility in Delhi that treats people from all over Southeast Asia, have reported more than a dozen cases of the fungus, according to the news center.
The black fungus mucormycosis – previously called zygomycosi – is a rare but serious infection caused by a group of fungi called mucormycetes, which are found in the environment.
The condition mainly affects people with health problems or who are taking medications that reduce the body’s ability to ward off germs.
“The frequency with which we witness the occurrence of COVID-induced mucormycosis with high morbidity and mortality is alarming,” said Dr. Manish Munjal, a senior ENT specialist at the hospital, on the Indian Express.
“Early clinical suspicion of symptoms such as nasal congestion, swelling of the eye or cheeks, and black dry crusts in the nose should prompt a biopsy and initiate antifungal therapy as early as possible,” he added.
Symptoms include pain, facial numbness, nasal congestion and eye swelling, the report said. If the infection reaches the lungs, symptoms may include fever, cough, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
Skin mucormycosis may look like blisters or sores and the infected area may turn black. Gastrointestinal mucormycosis can be indicated by abdominal pain, vomiting and bleeding.
In one case, a 32-year-old man who was recovering from COVID-19 developed a nasal blockage and eye swelling two days later. The left side of his face was completely numbed and he was rushed to hospital.
“His tests revealed the presence of greatly elevated levels of sugar and infection, but more deadly, the presence of a deadly rare fungus called Mucor, which was sampled from his nasal debris,” said Munjal.
“An MRI revealed that the infection had already destroyed a significant portion of his left side sinuses, eye, maxillary bone and muscles, and had even reached the brain,” he added.
Surgeons removed infected tissue from the patient, who received more than two weeks of life-saving antifungals and intensive care support, according to the Indian Express.
“Orbital involvement (the bony cavity that contains the eyeball) is a serious development in the course of this disease, indicating not only the possibility of permanent vision loss, but also life because brain activity is the leading cause of death in mucormycosis,” said Dr. Shaloo Bageja, a senior eye surgeon in the hospital, at the outlet.