Indian officials have been raising the alarm about a COVID-19-triggered fungal infection that has a nearly 50% mortality rate, but also can lead to blindness and the removal of the nose and jaw in those it doesn’t kill, according to local reports.
A report of 12 cases in 15 days at a New Delhi hospital on Dec. 15 of the mucormycosis fungus was followed a week later by a health advisory from the state of Gurajat that warned about the disease, The Indian Express said in separate stories.
''Mucormycosis is a type of fungal disease which infects those with compromised immune system, and with other existing diseases, is a serious infection with a mortality rate of nearly 50 percent,'' the advisory stated.
Symptoms include face numbness, one-side nose obstructions or swelling of eyes, or pain.
''The frequency with which we are witnessing the occurrence of COVID triggered mucormycosis with high morbidity and mortality is alarming,'' according to Dr. Manish Munjal, a senior ear, nose and throat surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. ''Early clinical suspicion on symptoms such as nose obstruction, swelling in the eye or cheeks, and black dry crusts in the nose should immediately prompt a biopsy and start of the antifungal therapy as early as possible.''
Mucormycosis, or black fungus and previously called zygomycosis, is a rare fungal infection caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes which exist in the environment, the Express said. It mainly affects people with health problems or those who take medication that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and illness.
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