(Asian News Hub) – Indian doctors have recorded a huge surge in cases of mucormycosis, an aggressive, hard-to-treat fungal infection, among COVID-19 patients.
“Now, I am seeing as many as 25 mucormycosis cases in a week, all COVID-19 patients either currently on treatment or recovered,” said Dr Milind Navalakhe, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Global Hospital in Mumbai.
The western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, has officially reported over 2,000 cases and eight fatalities due to mucormycosis so far.
The state’s health minister Rajesh Tope has announced the setting up of special wards in hospitals to treat the fungal disease.
Medical experts say mucormycosis is an “opportunistic infection”—it latches on to people who are battling illnesses or are on medications that lower the body’s ability to fight infections.
