At least 90 people who recovered from Covid-19 have reportedly died from a rare black fungal infection in coronavirus-ravaged India.
Around 850 people are in hospital with mucormycosis in the west Indian state Maharashtra and authorities have warned they will have to treat 5,000 patients over the next few months.
The condition, also known as black fungus, was rare before India’s second coronavirus wave and only affected those whose immune system has been compromised including diabetics or people with HIV or AIDS.
Without early treatment, the black fungus has a mortality rate of 50%.
Doctors are now being forced to remove the eyes or jaws infected patients to save lives.
(Image: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)
Mucormycosis causes blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.
Doctors believe that the use of steroids to treat severe Covid-19 could be causing the rash of cases because those drugs reduce immunity and push up sugar levels.
(Image: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)
(Image: Getty Images)
Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said mucormycosis had emerged as a new challenge for coronavirus patients on steroid therapy and those with pre-existing diabetes.
In a letter to sate, he said: “This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients”.
He gave no numbers of the mucormycosis cases nationwide but Maharashtra, home to Mumbai and one of the states worst hit in the second wave of coronavirus infections, has reported 1,500 cases.
Agarwal asked state governments to declare it as a “notifiable disease” under the Epidemics Act, meaning they have to identify and track every case.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
On Thursday the country reported 276,110 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, slightly higher than a day earlier but well below the 400,000 high seen at the beginning of this month.
The total caseload stands at 25.77 million, the world’s second highest after the United States.
Deaths rose by 3,874 overnight, taking the total tally 287,122. but with hospitals and crematoria overflowing and the health it system overwhelmed, some experts saying infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher.
“We have seen more cases of black fungus in the past week than we normally treat in two years,” tweeted Dr Arvinder Singh Soin, a leading Indian doctor in Delhi.
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The surge is being blamed on the rampant, long-term prescription of steroids to treat Covid-19 infections by India’s overwhelmed doctors.
While the steroids are proving successful in treating Covid-19 in many patients, they suppress the victim’s immune system, making them more vulnerable to Black Fungus.
Athorities in the northern state of Rajasthan, which has at least 100 active cases, have declared a mucormycosis “epidemic”,.