Ghaziabad doctors claim ‘yellow fungus’ infection in a post-Covid patient
Doctors at a Ghaziabad private hospital on Monday claimed that one of their patients, a 45-year-old man who had recovered from Covid-19, is diagnosed with mucour scepticus disease, or so-called “yellow fungus”
Doctors at a Ghaziabad private hospital on Monday claimed that one of their patients, a 45-year-old man who had recovered from Covid-19, is diagnosed with mucour scepticus disease, or so-called “yellow fungus”.
But the district health department said that they awaited the patient’s histopathological (tissue test) report for confirmation.
The patient arrived at the Harsh ENT Hospital at Raj Nagar District Centre (RDC) on Sunday with post-Covid complications.
“It is called as yellow fungus as the affected area is yellow in colour and has pus formation below it. It is generally found in reptiles. It was detected through endoscopic examination of the patient’s nose,” Dr BP Tyagi, senior ENT surgeon at the hospital.
News agency ANI reported that yellow fungus is a fatal disease because it starts internally and therefore it is important to note its symptoms.
Dr Randeep Guleria, the director of Delhi’s All India of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said during a Covid-related press briefing in Delhi on Monday that the terms like “black, yellow and white fungus” could mislead and create confusion.
“Fungal infections, like black fungus is a different family. Its culture has white coloured fungal colonies and has black dots. So, in general terms it is stated as black fungus. In general, we have mucormycosis (so-called “black fungus”) which is more prevalent nowadays. We also have infections like candida, aspergillosis, cryptococcus and histoplasma besides coccidioidomycosis,” he said.
He added that most fungal infections nowadays are of mucormycosis and aspergillosis (so-called “white fungus”) with some candida infections as well.
“So, it is better we use correct names and labelling the same fungus with names of different colours can create confusion,” Dr Guleria said.
Ghaziabad chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said, “We have spoken to the doctors at the hospital. We are waiting for the histopathological report, expected in a couple of days,” Dr Gupta added.
So far, the hospital at RDC, Raj Nagar is treating 27 patients suffering post-Covid complication of mucormycosis and invasive aspergillosis and three of them are stated to be suffering from both.
“These are basically different types of fungal infections and nowadays they are generally termed as per their appearance (colour). Yellow fungus infections mostly occur in unhygienic conditions or during humid weather conditions. It can also affect our vital organs and there is also pus formation. Most of the fungal infections occur in immuno-compromised patients or those having prolonged treatment history besides those having diabetes,” said Dr Sanjeev Kumar Jain, consultant (ENT), Columbia Asia Hospital at Ghaziabad.
