Prevalence of Fungal Infection Mucormycosis in COVID-19 Induced Viral Pneumonia Disease - A Prospective Study at Atertiary Care Centre

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), during the second wave in early 2021, had caused devastating chaos in India. As daily infection rates rose alarmingly, the number of severe cases had increased dramatically. The country had encountered health infrastructure inadequacy and excessive demand for hospital beds, drugs, vaccines, and oxygen. Adding more burden to such a challenging situation, mucormycosis, an invasive fungal infection, had seen a sudden surge in patients with COVID-19. The rhino - orbital - cerebral form was the most common type observed. In particular, approximately three - fourths of them had diabetes as predisposing comorbidity and received corticosteroids to treat COVID-19. Possible mechanisms involved immune and inflammatory processes. Diabetes, when coupled with COVID-19?induced systemic immune change, tend to cause decreased immunity and an increased risk of secondary infections. Since comprehensive data on this fatal opportunistic infection were evolving against the backdrop of a major pandemic, prevention strategies primarily involved managing comorbid conditions in high - risk groups. The recommended treatment strategies primarily included surgical debridement and antifungal therapy using Amphotericin B and selected azoles. Several India - centric clinical guidelines had emerged to rightly diagnose the infection, characterize the clinical presentations, understand the pathogenesis involved, and track the disease course. A staging system has recently been proposed, and a dedicated registry has been started. In this original article, we extensively analysed the recent evidence on COVID-19 associated Mucormycosis diagnosis & hence early treatment to decrease the morbidity & Mortality.