Mucoramycosis alert sounded in Mumbai and Ahmedabad; Rajasthan CM urges people to follow COVID protocols

Many cases of mucormycosis have been reported among patients recovering from COVID-19. Read on to know more about this fungal infection and what makes COVID recovered patients more susceptible to this disease.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged people to follow all COVID protocols and be more careful in the coming days as there are chances of corona cases to go high due to cold weather. In a series of tweets, Gehlot also cautioned people about the threat of Mucormycosis, which is striking those who have recovered from COVID-19.

Mumbai and Ahmedabad have already issued an alert for this disease, which can lead to collapse of many organs. Many people have died due to this disease, he said in his tweets, according to IANS.

Mucormycosis is one of the post-recovery complications facing COVID-19 patients. It is a serious fungal infection that affects the sinuses, brain, eyes, lungs and the skin.

Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi have reported witnessing 13 cases of COVID-19-triggered mucormycosis in recovering coronavirus patients. Nearly half of these patients have lost their eyesight due to this deadly fungal infection, hospital authorities claimed on Monday. While Mucormycosis has been there since long, the increasing cases seen in recovering COVID-19 patients is serious cause for concern, the hospital said in a statement.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Dr V.K. Paul, Member, Health, NITI Aayog, called it as a "devastating disease" and asked people to remain more cautious.

Everything you need to know about Mucoramycosis

Mucormycosis is caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes, which are usually found in soil and decaying organic matter, such as spoiled foods, leaves, compost piles, or rotten wood. You can get the infection either by inhaling fungal spores or when fungus enters the skin through cuts, scrapes, burns, or other open wounds.

Mucormycosis is more common in people who have weakened immune system or other underlying medical condition that makes them prone to infection. Risk factors for mucormycosis include:

• Diabetes mellitus
• Cancer
• Long-term corticosteroid use
• Organ or stem cell transplants
• HIV/AIDS
• Skin trauma such as burns, surgery, or injuries
• Excess iron in the body
• Injection drug use
• Treatment with deferoxamine (Desferal)
• Malnutrition
• Low white blood cell count (neutropenia)
• Prematurity birth/low birth weight

The signs and symptoms of mucormycosis may vary depending on the part of the body affected by the fungus. For example, when it affects the sinuses, brain and eyes, it can cause symptoms like fever, nasal ulcers, stuffy nose, facial swelling, vision problems, sinus infection, and headache.

When mucormycosis affects the lungs, the patient may experience cough, shortness of breath, pneumonia, fever, and chest pain. Infection on the skin, on the other hand, can cause blisters or ulcers, black skin on the infected area, and pain, redness, swelling, or warmth around a wound.

Mucormycosis infection is generally treated with antifungal medications, and sometimes involves surgical removal of affected tissue. It is not contagious, which means it cannot spread from person-to-person contact.

Mucormycosis and COVID-19

According to Dr. Manish Munjal, Senior ENT Surgeon at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, the post-COVID patients are given a large dose of steroids to decrease the Cytokine storm, and this allows opportunistic fungal infections like deadly Mucormycosis to enter the body.

This fungus enters the body and destroys the affected part, he told ANI.

Experts also say that COVID recovered patients have co-morbidities that make them more susceptible to this fungal infection.

Earlier, a paper published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science September 30, 2020, reported a case in which a COVID-19 patient developed rhino-orbital mucormycosis infection during the course of the treatment. The 60- year-old male patient, a longstanding diabetic, died despite all measures to save him.

The authors suggested that COVID-19 may be associated with a wide range of bacterial and fungal co-infections, probably due to immune dysregulation. "Additionally, the widespread use of steroids/monoclonal antibodies/broad-spectrum antibiotics as part of the armamentarium against COVID-19 may lead to the development/exacerbation of preexisting fungal diseases," the authors wrote.

They noted that physicians should be aware of the possibility of invasive secondary fungal infections in patients with COVID-19 infection especially in patients with pre-existing risk factors.