In the MucoCovi network study, 16 healthcare centres provided detailed information about proven mucormycosis cases with and without COVID-19 infection.
Black fungus or mucormycosis cases are spreading across India in the wake of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though this had happened last year after the first wave of the pandemic, this time around the situation is more critical and spreading faster and infecting more people. In fact, more than 20,000 cases have been reported across India. Now, in the first evidence-based multi-centre study on mucormycosis (black fungus) in India, doctors from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, said on Saturday that the major factors that may be behind the emergence of this health crisis are uncontrolled diabetes and improper use of steroid. But they were not able to study the role of the Covid-19 virus in causing immunity disturbance leading to mucormycosis.