As the world is still battling the novel coronavirus, a rare serious fungal infection has come up which is affecting covid-19 patients.
Doctors in Ahmedabad have now reported a fungal infection that is preying on COVID-19 patients and also on those who have recently recovered.
About Mucormycosis
According to a report in The Times of India, an Ahmedabad-based retina and ocular trauma surgeon -- by the name of Dr Parth Rana -- has said that five cases of mucormycosis have been detected.
A rare but serious fungal infection, Mucormycosis is caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes, which can enter the body through the air (via fungal spores) or the skin through a skin injury. Mucormycosis can't spread between people or between people and animals.
Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body's ability to fight germs and sickness. It is a rare fungal infection with a mortality rate of 50%, reported WION.
Symptoms include nasal discharge, abdominal pain, bleeding in the nose, eye movement restriction, and lung problems.
All the above-mentioned patients had enlarged eyeballs that were bulging out of the eye sockets. As per the report, two patients have already died while two surviving patients have lost their eyesight.
Four male patients were aged between 34 and 47 years. The fifth patient was a 67-year-old man who has rushed to an Ahmedabad hospital on late Friday night. He was in critical condition.
Before COVID-19 infection, mucormycosis takes around 15-30 days to spread but after contracting COVID-19, the spread occurs within just 2-3 days.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr Atul Patel, who had earlier warned of the growing incidence of the serious infection in COVID-19 patients, said, "We have recorded 19 cases of mucormycosis infection in recovered patients in the past three months."
The specialist doctor has cited poor sugar control, use of high doses of steroids and overall compromised immunity as the reason for the disease.
