Delhi hospitals see rise in post-Covid complications

NEW DELHI: After Delhi witnessed a massive surge in Covid-19 infections in the second wave, patients are now returning to hospitals with not just the fungal infection, mucormycosis, but a myriad of symptoms, city doctors said.

Extreme fatigue, lethargy, body and joint pain, brain fog, and fever are the most common, but there have also been cases of pneumonia, collapsed lungs, heart attacks and strokes.

Cases of mucormycosis, referred to as black fungus, have shot up across the country with the disease being declared an epidemic in Delhi and several other states. So far, at least 848 cases of the infection have been reported by Delhi hospitals.

But doctors say that nearly 15-20% of hospitalised Covid-19 patients return with some complications; and that some who were not hospitalised when they got Covid may need hospital care for a second bout of health problems. “I would say around 15-20% of the hospitalised Covid-19 patients are returning with some or the other health problem. The number of people experiencing long Covid symptoms could be higher because many with lethargy, fever, body and joint ache might not be coming back to hospitals,” said Dr Vivek Nangia, head of the department of respiratory medicine at Max hospital, Saket. Long Covid has been described as a range of symptoms such as fatigue, headache, loss of smell.

Fever, rare infections

Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant of internal medicine at Indraprastha Apollo hospital, said almost 80% of the current hospitalisations are because of complications arising out of Covid-19.

Diabetes

Use of steroids to treat Covid-19 patients has also led to many people developing high blood sugar, and for many, it is unlikely to be resolved, said Dr Anoop Misra, chairman, FortisCDOC Centre for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology.

Lung diseases

Dr Nangia has also been treating patients with secondary pneumonia caused by bacteria and fungus developed after recovering from Covid-19 penumonia. At the post-Covid clinic, he said that he gets patients who are unable to get off oxygen even after weeks of being discharged from the hospital.