A deadly fungus infection has surged through India in recovering Covid-19 patients, many of whom have had an eye removed to prevent the fungus infecting the brain.  

Known as mucormycosis or ‘the black fungus,’ cases in India reached 14,872 by May 2021 after the country’s second wave of Covid-19, according to a report in The Lancet. Of 24 cases at Mumbai's Sion Hospital, 11 lost an eye and six died. 

Found in the mucous of healthy patients, but also in soil, manure and decaying vegetation, mucormycosis infections affect patients whose immune systems have been compromised by steroid treatment for Covid-19, Indian-based doctors told reporters. Covid-19 and steroids cause elevated blood sugar levels, which are associated with outbreaks of the deadly fungal infection.  

Patients with mucormycosis complain of blurred vision, droopy eyelids and nose discharges, with the primary treatment being removal of the fungus from the infected area, most often the eye. “It’s a form of flesh-eating fungus that destroys tissues as it grows,” Akshay Nair, an oculoplastic surgeon in Mumbai, told The Washington Post. “If it involves the eye — the eyeball, lids, muscles around the eye have to be removed, leaving behind the bare, bony socket.” 

Standard mucormycosis treatment is daily intravenous doses of amphotericin B for up to eight weeks, but the cost of treatment is more than US$2,500 per patient, or nearly six months’ wages for the average Mumbai worker.