Shimla: The State COVID clinical committee has taken out a detailed treatment protocol for Mucormycosis/ Black Fungus.
Black Fungus is a fungal disease which generally affects the nose, eyes and cerebral area in a human body.
COVID clinical committee has advised to monitor the signs and symptoms in the admitted COVID-19 patients and in post Covid follow-up to control and treat the disease completely.
Explaining the major signs and symptoms, clinical committee, in its press briefing, said that nose and sinuses are the relatively early sites of Mucormycosis infection. The major symptoms that a person can be vigilant for this infection are headache, nasal obstruction which is persistent and not responding to medicines, nasal crusting and discharge, pain or loss of sensation over face, discolouration of skin, loosening of teeth, ulceration of palate or bridge of nose, black necrotic eschar in the nasal cavity and sinusitis.
The intra oral symptoms include intra oral pus discharge, ulceration of mucosa, loosening of teeth and unhealed tooth socket, mobility of maxilla.
Black fungus disease also affects eyes which can result in swelling and redness of eyes, double vision, loss of vision, pain in the eye, drooping eyelid.
The medical management of mucormycosis is known and the disease is completely curable if detected early, clinical committee announced.
Recently a surge in the Black Fungus disease was found. It’s found that the COVID-19 infection has tendency of worsening diabetes, precipitate new diabetes in the patients and sometimes develops deficiency of White Blood Cells. Also, the immunosuppressive treatments such as steroids being used in COVID-19 patients result in decrease in immunity.
The chronic respiratory disease, intubation, mechanical ventilation and coexistence of other infections during COVID-19 also increases chances of mucormycosis.
