US researchers have formally linked Covid-19 infection with a recent surge in mucormycosis, also known as ‘black fungus’ and formerly considered a rare disease.
Led by ophthalmologist Dr Andrea Tooley, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Minnesota, the researchers described mucormycosis incidence prior to the pandemic as 0.005-1.7 per million population. However, their clinic, which previously treated 10 patients for the condition annually, encountered 73 cases of Covid-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM) within a three-month period. They also noted a “massive increase” of rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis (ROCM) in India, with more than 15,000 cases as of May 2021.
The authors described diabetes and corticosteroid use as the biggest risk factors for CAM, but said haematological malignancy, pharmacological immunosuppression and HIV infection also carry significant risk. Of the 47 patients for whom vaccine data were available, 89% were unvaccinated and none of the subjects was fully vaccinated.
