CAUGHT UNAWARES

Even as India attempts to understand the sudden rise of COVID-related mucormycosis, its treatment throws up a different set of challenges BANJOT KAUR NEW DELHI

- BANJOT KAUR

EVEN BEFORE India could sense a wane in the second wave of the pandemic that threw the public health infrastructure into chaos, doctors had another related crisis to handle: an outbreak of mucormycosis among covid-19 patients. As on June 11, more than a month into the outbreak, cases of mucormycosis in the country crossed the 30,000-mark and reportedly resulted in 2,000 deaths.

The disease is caused by “Mucaroles” order of Zygomycota or Zygote fungi. Its spores, which are essentially microscopic particles that serve a purpose similar to that of seeds in plants, are found everywhere—soil, plants, manure and decaying fruits and vegetables to even in the nose and mucus of human beings. But human body is not known as the natural habitat for these fungi. To thrive here, it needs an enabling factor that weakens the human immune system. And once an immunocom-promised person inhales the spores, they get attacked by this “opportunistic infection”. Mucormycosis is therefore typically reported by people suffering from immunocompromising conditions like diabetes. Symptoms include fever, skin lesions, blurred vision with eye pain, blackish or blood-filled nasal discharge, thrombosis (clot in blood vessels) and necrosis (death of body tissue due to lack of blood supply).

It spreads rapidly, sometimes 4-5 cm a day. If lesions turn severe and part of the tissue becomes necrotic, it has to be surgically removed. The infection can chew up bones and spread to the brain when left inadequately treated. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegs the infection’s mortality rate at 54 per cent.