After 'black fungus', nasal aspergillosis is seen rising among Covid-19 patients
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/after-black-fungus-nasal-aspergillosis-is-seen-rising-among-covid-19-patients-991008.html
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/after-black-fungus-nasal-aspergillosis-is-seen-rising-among-covid-19-patients-991008.html
Nasal aspergillosis, which infects the sinuses, joins the growing list of deadly fungal infections that have tagged along with the Covid-19 virus, with at least eight patients in Vadodara being admitted on account of the disease.
Two of Vadodara’s. government hospitals, which are collectively
treating 262 patients for mucormycosis or 'black fungus', have now
reported cases of invasive nasal aspergillosis over the past week in
Covid-19-positive and Covid-19-recovered patients, according to
multiple media reports.
In the aftermath of the second Covid-19 wave in the country, a suite
of fungal infections—black, white and yellow fungus—have been
reported with increasing frequency, a trend health experts
hypothesise could be a result of weakened immune systems due to
excessive use of steroids to treat Covid-19 patients with acute
diabetes and unsanitary use of oxygen cylinders.
The rapid spread of black fungus caused by a type of mould has
prompted several states to declare it an epidemic to keep a tab on its
spread and enforce
measures to contain it.
Aspergillosis is also caused by a species of mould found all over the
world called aspergillus in everything from the air to damp soil and
decaying organic matter. While mostly harmless, some varieties
could cause a range of diseases in humans ranging from simple
allergic reactions to a life-threatening invasive
disease.
The symptoms of the infection include a stuffy or runny nose,
congestion, fever, facial pain and headache. A distinctive fungal ball
of fungus fibers, mucus, cells and blood-clotting protein may also
form in the sinuses and the infection could spread to other areas
including the brain. Nasal aspergillosis is sometimes also linked with
bone loss of the facial bones.
Invasive nasal aspergillosis is far more common in severely
immunocompromised patients, though non-invasive types can occur
even in normal hosts, studies on the disease have shown. Nasal
aspergillosis has also been found to have a case fatality rate or
deaths-to-cases ratio of 66%, according to a 2001 paper titled
Aspergillosis Case-Fatality Rate: Systematic Review of the
Literature.
All the fungal infections cropping up in the country at present are
treated with a single antifungal drug called Amphotericin B, but the
study had found that mortality due to the aspergillosis family of
infections was high “despite improvements in diagnosis and despite
the advent of newer formulations of
amphotericin B.”