Although Covid-19 cases continue to rise sharply, one of the leading private hospitals in Ahmedabad is warning of mucormycosis cases, often as a post-Covid complication in the form of a fungal infection. Doctors warn against the indiscriminate use of steroids and warn the public about keeping diabetes at bay.
At a press conference on the treatment protocol for Covid-19 on April 22nd in Gandhinagar by the state task force of medical experts, Dr. VN Shah, director of Zydus Hospital in Ahmedabad, said that Zydus Hospital had almost 10 cases of mucormycosis in two days.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Dr. Shah added that Zydus has treated nearly 500 cases of mucormycosis for over a year since the pandemic.
The fungal infection is the result of weakened immunity after Covid-19 and also occurs in patients who are still Covid positive and often affect patients with uncontrolled type 1 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cancer, etc.
The Gujarat Health Department does not count mucormycosis “because it is not a communicable disease”. In December 2020, the department had issued a notice that the fungal infection is a serious infection with a death rate of almost 50 percent, which is reported in “Covid-19 patients in Ahmedabad and Rajkot”.
At the Gujarat assembly, De puty chief minister Nitin Patel, who holds the health portfolio, said that in the two years ended December 31, 2020, 66 cases of mucormycosis had been reported in Ahmedabad, four of which died.
Dr. Prachi Desai, a dentist at Zydus Hospital, warns that the rare infection that doctors were theoretically more familiar with in books has increased significantly. Dr. Desai added that while you can survive the infection, it will affect your quality of life and will cost you a lot of time and money to rehabilitate.