Emerging cases of mucormycosis in post Covid-19 disease patients

Mucormycosis (MC) is a serious threat in this covid-19 pandemic situation; cases of MC continue to increases as post covid-19 disease affliction in India. It is a life-threatening disease that happens due to black mold. Mucormycosis is described as a potentially lethal infection amongst immune-compromised (IC) hosts, particularly in those with diabetes, leukemia, and lymphoma. Mortality rate of MC just doubles in IC host, delayed diagnosis increase the rate of mortality. Mucormycosis is difficult to diagnose which affects outcomes and results in a poor prognosis. The main objective of the study was to detect MC in the clinical species received during or post covid-19 treatment in our laboratory. Basic microbiological methods such as gram stain and KOH smear were used for the detection of MC in the received clinical specimen and morphology was seen in the microscope. The is a cross-sectional observational study conducted in our microbiology laboratory for one month periods during May 15, 2021 to June 15, 2021 in a tertiary care hospital of central India. During study period our microbiology lab received n=35 suspected clinical specimens from N= 27 post covid-19 patients for MC diagnosis over one month period. Out of n=35 specimens, n=8 specimens (obtained from N=5 patients) were positive for MC by gram and KOH smear method and we saw filamentous fungi by conventional microscopic method. The present study concluded that the cases of life threatening MC increase day by day in central India as post complication of covid-19 disease.