All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS) Director Randeep Guleria on Saturday said misuse of steroids is a major cause behind mucormycosis. Guleria also urged the hospitals to follow protocols of infection control practices as secondary infections — fungal and bacterial — can be seen as the COVID-19 cases are increasing and are causing more mortality.
The AIIMS director while addressing the health briefing, said, “As COVID-19 cases are increasing, it’s of paramount importance that we follow protocols of infection control practices at hospitals. It is been seen that secondary infections — fungal & bacterial — are causing more mortality.” He said, “Mucormycosis spores are found in soil, air and even in food. But they are of low virulence and usually do not causes infection. There were very few cases of this infection before COVID.
Now a large number of cases are being reported due to COVID.” At AIIMS, 23 patients are being treated for this fungal infection. Out of them, 20 are still COVID-19 positive & the rest are negative for COVID. Many states have reported more than 500 cases of mucormycosis, said Guleria.
Source link
