COVID patient dies with black fungus symptoms in Dhaka

After reporting a patient, who recovered from coronavirus infection, as the first case of mucormycosis or black fungus in Bangladesh, the authorities have said that another COVID-19 patient died in Dhaka with symptoms of the fungal disease.

The death occurred at BIRDEM General Hospital on May 22, said its Joint Director Dr Nazimul Islam.

Samples from the patient were sent to a laboratory after some post-mortem tests aroused suspicion among the doctors.

“We are still not sure whether the patient had mucormycosis,” the doctor said on Tuesday.

The other patient from Satkhira was also undergoing treatment at the hospital.

The person was diagnosed with mucormycosis while undergoing medical tests earlier this month, said Director General Professor MKI Quayyum Choudhury. The patient was earlier diagnosed with coronavirus in Khulna.

Prof Choudhury, when asked if the patient had travelled to India, could not provide further details.

Mucormycosis or black fungus is a fungal infection, which is rare but can be fatal. In 50 percent of the cases, this fungal infection causes death.

A patient suffering from the black fungus can be saved only by removing the bone around the eyes or jaw.

WHAT IS MUCORMYCOSIS?

Mucormycosis is a fungal infection that causes blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood.

The disease has a close link to diabetes, and conditions that compromise the immune system. Experts have said that an overuse during the COVID-19 pandemic of certain drugs which suppress the immune system could be causing the surge.

Data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention shows that mucormycosis has a mortality rate of 54 percent, which can vary depending on the condition of the patients and the body part affected.

States across India have reported more than 5,000 cases of the otherwise rare disease in recent weeks, mostly in people infected with COVID-19 or recovering from the disease.

IS IT CONTAGIOUS?

The disease is not contagious, which means that it cannot spread from contact between humans or animals. But it does spread from fungal spores that are present in the air or in the environment, which are almost impossible to avoid.

"Bacteria and fungi are present in our bodies already, but they are kept in check by the body’s immune system," said K Bhujang Shetty, head of Narayana Nethralaya, an eye hospital. "When the immune system goes down because of cancer treatment, diabetes or use of steroids, then these organisms get an upper hand and they multiply," said Shetty.

[With details from Reuters]