Incidence of Mucormycosis, An Invasive Fungal Infection and its Relation with Covid-19 in A Tertiary Care Centre in Jammu

Mucormycosis, an invasive fungal infection has been seen to affect a large number of COVID-19 patients due to the overdosage, panic and injudicious use of corticosteroids among COVID-19 patients and presence of diabetes as a risk factor increases the chances of getting COVID-19 infection. The combination of Mucormycosis and COVID-19 infection has posed a double health threat to a collapsing healthcare system in India. Hence, the present study was conducted to study the incidence of Mucormycosis and its relation with COVID-19 so that awareness among the public can be generated and appropriate steps could be planned to combat the syndemic of COVID-19 and Mucormycosis. In our study, a total of 30 cases of Mucormycosis were reported, out of which Rhinocerebral Mucormycosis (RCOM) was the most common type 25(83.3%). Among the cases, 20 (66.6%) were male and 10 (33.33 %) were female. Maximum cases- 15 (45.8%) were in 51-60 years age group and among the cases, 18 (75%) were COVID positive. The present study was planned so that early diagnosis of such cases could be done, which would further help in providing appropriate treatment and hence subsequent reduction of morbidity and mortality.