50% black fungus patients who visited PGI were diagnosed with Covid-19

Chandigarh: Over 50 per cent patients visiting the PGI with mucormycosis symptoms were also diagnosed with Covid-19 on the same day.

“A lot of people are presenting to our hospital with symptoms of mucormycosis (commonly known as black fungus) but they are found Covid positive as well on the same day,” said Dr Gyan Ranjan Nayak from the Department of ENT, PGI.

“The association may be partly explained by the fact that many of them were borderline diabetic or pre-diabetic and their blood sugar levels shot up when they contracted Covid-19. The patients can be asymptomatic for Covid but can develop mucormycosis symptoms,” said Dr Nayak.

Prof Arunaloke Chakrabarti, Head of Department, Medical Microbiology, PGI, said, “A lot of people in our country take medicines without consulting doctors. There is hardly any patient of mucormycosis in the PGI who does not have hyper glycemia.”

“Almost 80 per cent mucormycosis patients were also taking steroids. When they came to the PGI, they were found infected with the fungal infection as well as the Covid,” said Prof Chakrabarti.

The PGI has so far seen 189 patients of mucormycosis, of which 60 per cent (115) are Covid positive.