Why the cases of mucormycosis are increasing in India?

After April 2021, there has been a steady increase in the number of cases of mucormycosis in India. The first case of mucormycosis found in the world in 1874. From 1874 to 2020 the disease was common to very few people.

But at present, there is a huge increase in the number of cases of mucormycosis in India. Some states in India have even declared a mucormycosis epidemic. The good news is that mucormycosis is not a contagious disease. In India, the disease is currently spreading to people who have recovered from the severe Covid-19.

So let us know what is mucormycosis?  What kind of people does it happen to? Is it possible to treat this disease? What is the mortality rate of this Mucormycosis? Etc.

What is Mucormycosis?

Mucormycosis (also called zygomycosis) is a serious and unthinkable fungal infection.

Fungal viruses usually live in the environment, but they can also form in the soil, rotten organic matter such as leaves, manure, rotten wood, etc.

Currently, the disease affects people who have recovered from covid-19 and have diabetes who have admitted to ICU, and who have low immunity.

The disease spread through the air and by inhaling fungal spores from the air. It mostly affects the sinuses or the lungs.

Mucormycosis disease completely destroys the lungs and sinuses so that they cannot breathe and people die due to suffocation.

 

Types of mucormycosis

1. Rhino cerebral (sinus and brain) mucormycosis: 

2.Pulmonary (lung) mucormycosis:

This is the most common type of mucormycosis in people with cancer, organ transplants, and stem cell transplants.

3.Gastrointestinal mucormycosis:

This is more common in the elderly than in children especially premature and low birth weight infants less than one month of age, surgery, who have had antibiotics or medications that lower the body’s capability to fight disease and sickness.

4.Cutaneous (skin) mucormycosis:

Occurs when the fungus enters the body through the skin, such as after surgery, burns, or skin trauma. This is the most natural form of mucormycosis among people who do not have a less immune system.

5. Disseminated mucormycosis:

Occurs when the infection spreads over the bloodstream to affect another part of the body. Infections affect the brain the most, as well as the heart, skin, and spleen.

Symptoms of Mucormycosis

The symptoms of mucormycosis usually depend on where the fungus is growing in the body. Talk to your healthcare provider as soon as possible if you notice symptoms of mucormycosis disease.

Symptoms of rhino cerebral (sinus and brain) mucormycosis include:

 

• One-sided facial swelling
• Headache
• Nasal or sinus congestion
• A black spot of nasal bridge or upper inside of the mouth that quickly become more severe
• Fever

Symptoms of pulmonary (lung) mucormycosis include:

 

• Fever
• Cough
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath

Cutaneous (skin) mucormycosis looks like ulcers in which the infected area turns black.  Other symptoms include pain, warmth, excessive cravings, and swelling around the wound.

Symptoms of gastrointestinal mucormycosis include:

 

• Abdominal pain
• Nausea and vomiting
• Gastrointestinal bleeding

Disseminated mucormycosis found in people who are already suffering from other illnesses so it is difficult to know which symptoms are associated with mucormycosis.  If the disease spreads to the brain, the patient’s mental state deteriorates or he goes into a coma.

 

People at Risk & Prevention of mucormycosis

Q. Who gets mucormycosis?

Mucormycosis is a rare disease commonly found in people who have before suffered from a frozen disease, who are taking medication for a life-threatening illness, or who have a weakened immune system. Certain groups of people are more likely to get mucormycosis disease including people with:

 

• Diabetes, especially with diabetic ketoacidosis
• Cancer
• Organ transplant
• Stem cell transplant
• Long-term corticosteroid use
• Injection drug use
• Skin injury due to burns, wounds, or surgery
• Prematurity and low birth weight (for neonatal gastrointestinal mucormycosis)

Q. How does someone get mucormycosis?

Mucormycosis caused by exposure to the fungal spores in the environment. Through breathing it enters the lung or sinus, and both are the damage. Mucormycosis is also caused by Scarp, burn, and skin injury.

 

Q. Is mucormycosis contagious?

No. Mucormycosis does not spread among people or between people and animals.

 

How can I lower the risk of mucormycosis?

It’s difficult to avoid breathing in fungal seeds as the fungus that source mucormycosis usually lives in the environment.

No specific vaccine has developed to prevent mucormycosis. People with low immunity can be protected from mucormycosis disease by boosting their immunity.

Secure yourself from the environment, but keep in mind that this is just a thing, is not enough to prevent mucormycosis.

 

• Avoid going to construction or excavation sites; wear an N-95 face mask if you have to go to this area.
• Avoid going to the damaged area and floodwaters after hurricanes or natural disasters.
• Avoid going to places where you come in contact with dust or soil such as yard or gardening
• Wear shoes, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants when gardening, yard work, or visiting a wooded area.
• Wear shoes, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants when gardening, yard work, or visiting a wooded area.
• Wear gloves while handling or working materials like dust, soil, and compost.

The antifungal medication. If you have an increased risk of mucormycosis (if you have had an organ transplant or stem cell transplant), you can talk to your healthcare provider and take medication.

There are still many scientists and doctors experimenting to prevent fungal infections who have had the above transplants and who have contracted mucormycosis the disease.

 

Where Mucormycosis Comes From

Mucormycetes, the gathering of growths that source mucormycosis, are available all through the climate, especially in soil and in relationship with rotting natural matter, like leaves, manure heaps, and creature compost.

They are more natural in soil than in the air and in summer and fall than in winter or spring.

Most people come in contact with microscopic fungal spores every day, so it’s possibly impossible to completely avoid coming in contact with micromycetes. These fungi are not harmful to most people.

But people who have low immunity are more likely to get mucormycosis. Mucormycetes affect the lungs and spread throughout the body over time.

 

Types of fungi that cause mucormycosis

Various types of fungi can cause mucormycosis. These fungi are also known as micromycetes and belong to the scientific obtain Mucorales.

The easiest types that cause mucormycosis are the Rhizopus species and the Mucor species.

 

Diagnosis and testing for Mucormycosis

How is mucormycosis diagnosed?

Healthcare providers consider your symptoms, physical examinations, medical history, and laboratory tests when diagnosing mucormycosis.

Healthcare providers who suspect that you have mucormycosis in your sinuses or lungs might collect a sample of fluid from your respiratory system to send to a laboratory.

Your healthcare provider will perform tissue surgery, in which it will analyze samples of the fungus or mucormycosis in a laboratory using a microscope.

If you have an infection, you may need to have a CT scan of the lungs, sinuses, and other parts of the body from time to time.

Treatment for Mucormycosis

Mucormycosis is a serious infectious disease that can treat with antifungal medicine, usually, posaconazole, isavuconazole, or amphotericin B, prescribed by a doctor.

These medicines given through a vein (amphotericin B, posaconazole and isavuconazole,) or by mouth (isavuconazole, posaconazole).

Fluconazole, voriconazole, and echinocandins, drugs do not work against fungi and can cause mucormycosis.  Surgery is usually needed to prevent mucormycosis from becoming contagious.

 

Mucormycosis Statistics

Mucormycosis is a rare disease but it is difficult to determine the exact number of cases. There is no national organization for this disease.

According to a laboratory set up in San Francisco in 1992-93 for Mucormycosis, affects 1.7 people per one million.

Prospective surveillance among 16,808 transplant beneficiaries performed in 23 institutions from 2001 to 2006 found that mucormycosis was the third most common type of invasive fungal infection in stem cell transplant beneficiaries and accounted for 8% of all invasive fungal infections.

Solid-organ transplant beneficiaries have a 2% increased risk of developing mucormycosis.

Mucormycosis outbreaks

Health care providers should contact the concerned state government or local public body if there is an abnormal increase in the number of the disease.

But, mucormycosis infection is more common in sporadic cases.  But sometimes mucormycosis disease brighter.

Currently, the disease found in large numbers in the state of Gujarat in India.

It is difficult to determine whether mucormycosis is a disease associated with health care and whether it is a contagious disease.

 

Deaths due to mucormycosis

Mucormycosis has always been a deadly disease, with a review of cases of Mucormycosis showing an overall mortality rate of 54%.

That is, patients have different mortality rates depending on the condition, fungal infection, damage to the lungs and sinus.

The chance of death: from sinus infections is 46%, from lung infections is 76%, and from spreading mucormycosis is 96%.