Worrying rise in mucormycosis fungal infection in recovered COVID patients in India

Hospitals in India are recording a worrying rise in a rare infection that is blinding and, in some cases, killing recovered COVID patients.

A deadly fungal infection is affecting a rising number of recovered COVID patients in India, as doctors battle to treat patients in a health system already under severe pressure.

Mucormycosis is normally incredibly rare, but doctors in the virus-ravaged Asian country are coming across cases of the life-threatening infection more and more among people who have had coronavirus.

Mathur Savani, chairman of Kiran Super Multi-specialty Hospital in Surat, in the country’s west, said his hospital has dozens of patients with the infection.

“Fifty mucormycosis patients are being treated at our hospital and 60 more are awaiting [treatment]. They all came to our hospital in the last three weeks and have recovered from COVID-19 recently,” Mr Savani said, reported the New Indian Express.

Another hospital in Surat has had to set up a separate facility just for mucormycosis patients. And in Ahmedabad, western India, at least five patients with the illness are being operated on every day.

COVID patients in Bengaluru, India. Picture: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images

RELATED: India wave is bleeding over borders

“We are receiving five to 10 such cases (daily), especially since the second wave of COVID-19 started,” Dr Devang Gupta, ENT specialist at the Asarva hospital, said.

“At least one out of five cases is related to eyes. Several of them are suffering from blindness,” he said.

In Maharashtra, at least eight COVID-19 survivors have died due to mucormycosis while 200 others are being treated, said Dr Tatyarao Lahane, who heads the Directorate of Medical Education and Research of the state government.

“They survived COVID-19 but the fungal infection attacked their weakened immune system,” Dr Lahane told PTI.

‘Black fungus’ can lead to blindness, death

Mucormycosis is caused by exposure to mucor mould, commonly found in soil, plants, manure and decaying fruit and vegetables.

It affects sinuses, brain and lungs and can be life-threatening for patients who are immunocompromised such as people with diabetes. Often patients must have their eyes removed in order to save their lives.

The infection has a mortality rate of 50 per cent.

Doctors believe the rise in infections may be caused by patients who have been treated with steroids, which is common for severely ill COVID patients.

RELATED: Daughter slams PM after father’s India COVID death

Relatives perform the last rites for the cremation of a man on the banks of the Ganges River after he died of coronavirus. Picture: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images

Second wave spreads to neighbouring countries

It comes as coronavirus numbers in countries neighbouring India have worryingly begun to rise in the wake of the South Asian’s country’s devastating second wave.

Nepal has recorded a sharp rise in infection numbers in April, with 40 per cent of tests returning positive results. Two months ago, the country was recording daily case numbers of under 100; on May 8, the nation of 28 million people recorded 8287 new infections.

The increase in numbers has occurred despite extra health checks at borders being put into place in March.

Countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also recording rises in numbers.

The worrying trend has also reached countries in Southeast Asia, with countries such as Thailand and Indonesia battling increasing infection numbers.

On Thursday, the World Health Organisation confirmed more than 2.7 million new cases and 25,000 new deaths in the Southeast Asia region, marking a concerning 19 per cent and a 48 per cent increase respectively compared to the previous week.

“India is currently driving the vast majority of this upward trend,” the organisation warned.

RELATED: India’s crisis reaches new heights

A worker walks past a burning funeral pyre of a person who died due to COVID-19 at a cremation ground in Allahabad. Picture: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP

No end in sight for India crisis

Although daily infection numbers in India dipped below 400,000 this week, they have risen again, with a new record on May 6 of more than 414,000 infections. On the same day, the country recorded 3920 deaths.

However experts believe the true numbers are much higher.

The health system is at breaking point as hospitals in the nation run out of oxygen supplies, crematoriums run out of space and families even struggle to find wood to use in the funeral pyres for their loved ones.

Last month, a doctor in New Delhi, Gautam Singh, posted on social media a desperate video begging for medical supplies.

“Please send oxygen to us,” he said through a choked voice.

“My patients are dying.”