E-Paper
Bihar reports first Covid death with suspected black fungus
PATNA Bihar reported its first death due to suspected mucormycosis or black fungus when a 58-year-old male from Kaimur died at Patna’s AIIMS on Wednesday
PATNA
Bihar reported its first death due to suspected mucormycosis or black fungus when a 58-year-old male from Kaimur died at Patna’s AIIMS on Wednesday.
The patient was suffering from coronavirus and was admitted to the AIIMS Covid ward on Tuesday.
“The patient suffered multi-system organ failure. Clinically, he was a suspected case of mucormycosis as his eyes were involved and nose had Mucor-like findings. However, given the patient’s serious condition, though we sent samples for fungal culture, we could not complete radiological investigations like MRI of brain to establish mucormycosis,” said Dr Kranti Bhawna, additional professor and head of ENT department at AIIMS-Patna, who evaluated the patient on Tuesday.
Bihar has reported eight cases of mucormycosis in the last one week, seven of them at AIIMS-Patna and one at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS).
Among them, two are from Patna and one each from Nalanda, Saran, Gopalganj, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur. Two patients — one at AIIMS and another at IGIMS — are still battling Covid-19, while five have suffered post-Covid mucormycosis.
“Most of these patients have severe diabetes and are immuno-compromised. In coronavirus, cases of mucormycosis get aggravated either because of indiscriminate use of steroids or thrombosis (clotting) of blood vessels, leading to decreased immunity. When such patients inhale the fungus present in the environment or through unclean oxygen pipeline and oxygen humidifiers, which use piped water supply, their problem gets accentuated because their capacity to fight the fungus is already reduced. The fungus enters through the nose, goes to the eye and then brain. The fatality in mucormycosis is 30%-80%,” said Dr Bhawna, currently treating five cases of mucormycosis.
“I am planning to operate upon two such patients from Patna tomorrow,” she said.
Dr Saurabh Karmakar, associate professor of the pulmonary medicine department at the AIIMS-Patna, is treating one such case.
“We sampled the black fungus Mucor in a patient from Samastipur using fibreoptic bronchoscopy, a diagnostic modality. The patient was earlier admitted at AIIMS-Patna for 5-6 weeks and treated for coronavirus. The patient had poor diabetic control, persistent cough and was spitting blood with cough. He is now on oral medication. We have called him for follow-up in our outdoor patient department (OPD) after three weeks,” said Dr Karmakar.
A 52-year-old woman from Muzaffarpur, having Covid-19 with diabetes, blood pressure and cellulitis with eye infection, admitted at IGIMS on May 6, was also diagnosed with mucormycosis.
“She is being treated with anti-fungal drugs and has improved over the last three days. If required, our doctors will perform endoscopic nasal surgery, a facility we have at the institute,” said Dr Manish Mandal, medical superintendent of the IGIMS.
Manoj Kumar, executive director of State health Society, Bihar, did not respond to phone calls and text messages.
