Mucormycosis Cases: Don’t panic with the color of the fungus, look for causes, risks: Experts advise as more cases of Mucormycosis

Rising Cases of mucormycosis Between patients with Covid and those who have recovered from it, epidemiologists advise people on Tuesday not to panic about the color of the fungus that is causing it, and analyze the type of infection, its causes and associated risk factors. Emphasized the importance of.

Health Minister Hirschwaldan On Monday, 18 states reported 5,424 cases of mucormycosis, a life-threatening infection that is prevalent in patients with COVID-19 and those who have recovered from viral disease.

Sideways Black fungus Case, white and Yellow fungus Infectious diseases have recently been reported from different parts of the country, and scientists say they also have mucormycosis.

Dr. Sami Lampanda, Epidemiology The Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) infectious disease said the use of “terms such as black, green and yellow fungi” scared and anxious people.

Also, black mold becomes an existing pronoun Mucormycosis He said it complicates things.

“For the general public, black, yellow, and white colors tell us not to panic. Most of the deadly fungal infections are what fungal infections people are infected with. Or find out if the serious disease is an invasive fungal infection and can occur if your immunity is weakened or weakened.

“Therefore, the basic underlying phenomenon is the ability to fight immune or fungal infections,” he said.

In Ghaziabad, three fungi, black, white and yellow, were detected on May 24, claimed by a doctor at a private hospital treating a 59-year-old patient in NCR, Uttar Pradesh. .. ..

The yellow fungus has been observed in reptiles such as lizards, but not in humans, said Dr. BPTyagi, an otolaryngologist at Hirsch Hospital in the city’s Rajnagar region.

“The patient came to me with extreme weakness, dizziness, fever and runny nose. A yellow fungus was detected during endoscopy,” the doctor told PTI.

“This is the first case of a person who has three variants of the fungus (black, white, yellow),” he claimed.

He said the patient, a professional lawyer, had been infected with COVID-19, but had been quarantined at home and approached the hospital after enduring these problems for 8-10 days.

“He’s currently being treated. Don’t worry, the fungus will be cleared. If he came to me a day or two later, his problem would have been solved by now,” Tyagi said. Said.

He said the fungus attacked people with weakened immunity and in this particular case his patient was a diabetic.

Asked about the case of the yellow fungus, Dr. Panda of ICMR said that specimens need to be studied to confirm that it is the yellow fungus found in reptiles.

Professor Gilidara R. Bab, Head of Life Course Epidemiology at the Indian Institute of Public Health, said it is important to identify the causes and risk factors associated with fungal infections.

“What kind of research are we doing if a disease such as mucormycosis is present in the area? As an epidemiologist, I am interested in identifying the specific cause. What is the set of causes for the condition ?, why it was not seen in the first wave, only in the second wave. ”

Bab also said he needed to understand why some people are more susceptible to fungal infections and why the number of cases is increasing.

“In the second wave, there are some anomalies that weren’t in the first wave, such as the use of industrial oxygen. There are also variants of the coronavirus in the second wave,” he said. ..

He said viral and fungal infections are always present, but most people are unaffected because of the high immunity or low infectivity of the virus or fungus.

“… But when it changes, it becomes more infectious, and the immunity weakens, the risk increases. What I absolutely want is to be able to buy large amounts of antifungal agents. But if you can’t find anything, you can’t solve it without the causes and risk factors that lead to it. I think that’s where the country should focus. ”

AIIMS Director Landeep Grelia also states that it is better to identify mucormycosis by name rather than by color.

“Names the same fungus in different colors can cause confusion. Mucormycosis, unlike COVID-19, is not an infectious disease. About 90-95% of patients infected with mucormycosis have diabetes or It turns out that he was taking steroids. People who are neither diabetic nor steroids rarely see this infection, “he recently told reporters.

He generally stated that there are various types of fungal infections such as candida, aspergillosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, and coccidioidomycosis.

Mucormycosis, candidiasis, and aspergillosis are common in people with weak immunity, he said.

Grelia also said that there was no clear association between mucormycosis and oxygen therapy.