Lethal black fungus attacks Indian Covid-19 survivors

A black fungus with a mortality rate of 50 per cent is increasingly infecting recovered Covid-19 patients in India, with doctors forced to remove parts of the face of some sufferers to save lives.

Mucormycosis, caused by a mucor mould commonly found in soils and decaying vegetables, infects the sinuses, the brain and the lungs of immunocompromised people.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, mucormycosis was extremely rare, with just a few cases annually. But leading hospitals across India are now seeing multiple cases daily.

If it is feared that the mucor will spread to the brain then invasive surgery is a last-ditch recourse, with Indian doctors being forced to remove the infected jaw bone, nose and eyes of patients.

‘‘The situation here has improved in terms of numbers of Covid-19 patients requiring admission, but mucormycosis is now playing absolute havoc,’’ said Dr Prashant Rahate, the chairman of Sevenstar Hospital in the city of Nagpur, which has treated more black fungus patients than any other facility in central India.

The black fungus has a mortality rate of 50 per cent, according to the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, although the survival rate increases significantly with early diagnosis and treatment, according to Rahate.

‘‘We are seeing four to five new patients every day and have around 35 patients still admitted,’’ Rahate added.

Currently, the only available medicine is intravenous antifungal infections but many Indians cannot afford the $65 daily cost.

In Gujarat, one of the Indian states hit hard by the second wave, every government-run hospital will now have a specialist mucormycosis ward.

On Saturday, the BJ Medical College Hospital in Ahmedabad said at least 45 patients were waiting for surgery.

Part of the reason for the flare-up is thought to be the increased use of steroids to treat mild cases of Covid-19, which compromise the body’s immune response to infections such as mucormycosis.

‘‘The fungus grows incredibly fast,’’ said David Denning, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Manchester and chief executive of the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (Gaffi).

‘‘Once it gets in, it just marches through the tissue and doesn’t respect tissue planes, so it can go straight from ordinary tissue through into bone, into nerves.’’ – Telegraph Group