Is Black Fungus making a comeback?

As India is dealing with the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic driven by the new variant Omicron, recently a Black Fungus case has also been reported in Mumbai.

Well, the 1st case of Black Fungus in 2022 has been detected in a 70-year-old COVID patient who was tested positive on Jan 5th and started showing symptoms of black fungus on January 12.

Currently, the patient is admitted to the Wockhardt Hospital and undergoing treatment.

Last year during the summers of 2021 India saw many cases of COVID patients being infected with black fungus. The black fungus or Mucormycosis is a rare infection and affects the sinuses, brain and lungs. It can be life-threatening for diabetic or severely immunocompromised patients like cancer patients or people infected with HIV/AIDS.

While black fungus cases are not being reported widely as of now, the latest case of black fungus is making people concerned about this infection. However, Dr Trupti Gilada who is an Infectious Disease specialist at a Mumbai Hospital stated to a leading daily about it,

“It is still too early to know if we will see a large number of mucormycosis patients in the third wave, we expect it to be much lower because all the above risk factors are much lower with Omicron. Responsible use of steroids, antibiotics and good sugar control in those with diabetes is going to be key in averting this deadly disease going forward.''

Well, the doctors also believe that as of now there is no rise in the cases of mucormycosis among patients suffering from Omicron because most of the patients have mild to moderate symptoms and do not require immunomodulators like steroids or high flow oxygen support during their treatment.