Rare fungal infections that destroy eyeballs and kill are on the rise in India
Rare fungal infections that destroy eyeballs and kill are on the rise in India

                      
                      
          As the pandemic coronavirus continues to ravage India, doctors are reporting a disturbing uptick in cases of a rare, potentially fatal fungal infection among people recovered or recovering from COVID-19.
The infection is called mucormycosis, or sometimes “black fungus” in media reports, and it appears to be attacking COVID-19 patients through the nose and sinuses, where it can aggressively spread to facial bones, the eyes, and even the brain (rhinocerebral mucormycosis). In other cases, the fungus can also attack the lungs, breaks in the skin, and the gastrointestinal system or spread throughout the body in the blood stream.
A classic feature of mucormycosis is tissue necrosis—the death of flesh, essentially—which in the rhinocerebral form of the disease can lead to black, discolored lesions on the face, particularly on the bridge of the nose and the roof of the mouth. Mucormycosis is fatal in around 50 percent of cases.
If the fungus is able to spread to the eyes, patients may develop blurred vision, drooping eyelids, swelling, and vision loss. Patients may even need to have their eyes surgically removed to prevent the infection from spreading further, according to doctors who spoke to the BBC.
Dr. Akshay Nair, a Mumbai-based eye surgeon, told the BBC that he treated 40 patients with mucormycosis in April. Eleven of them needed to have an eye surgically removed.
The total number of mucormycosis cases in India is unclear, but media reports have tallied dozens to hundreds of cases. Dr. Renuka Bradoo, head of the ear, nose, and throat wing of Sion Hospital in Mumbai, told the BBC that doctors there have seen 24 cases of mucormycosis in the past two months. Usually, they see only about six cases in a whole year.
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A report in The New York Times out of New Delhi relayed that local news media in the western state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, had tallied around 200 cases. In the western state of Gujarat, state officials have reportedly ordered 5,000 doses of amphotericin B, an antifungal medicine used to treat mucormycosis.

          
                      
                  