Maharashtra / Eyes of three children aged 4, 6, 14 battling black fungus removed in Mumbai

Mumbai: The eyes of three children suffering from black fungus or mucormycosis in Mumbai had to be surgically removed to stop the infection from spreading to other parts of their bodies and save their lives.

The three children were aged 4, 6 and 14 with the oldest having been suffering from diabetes. They were operated at two different hospitals - Fortis Hospital and KBH Bachooali Ophthalmic and ENT Hospital - in the city.

Another child aged 16 became diabetic after recovering from COVID-19 and later got black fungus infection in stomach.

"We saw two girls infected with Black Fungus in the second wave (of Covid). Both were diabetic. After she came to us (the 14 years old), one of her eyes turned black within 48 hours. The fungus was spreading to the nose too. Luckily, it did not reach the brain. We treated her for six weeks; unfortunately, she lost her eye," Dr Jesal Sheth, Senior Consultant Paediatrician at Fortis Hospital, was quoted as saying by NDTV.

"The 16-year-old child was healthy a month ago. She had recovered from Covid. She was not diabetic. But she came to us with diabetes suddenly. Her intestines started bleeding. We did an angiography and found that Black Fungus had infected blood vessels near her stomach," Dr Sheth added.

The younger two, who were infected with COVID-19, were admitted to Mumbai's KBH Bachooali Ophthalmic and ENT Hospital. Both had Covid.

"Black Fungus was spreading in their eyes and if we had not removed the eyes, their life would have been in danger. They were already blind in one eye and it was hurting them badly. One child came to us in December last year. The second case came during the second wave," said Dr Prithesh Shetty, Oculoplasty, Ocular Oncology and Ocular Prosthetic at the hospital.

With the rise in the number of mucormycosis cases in the country, doctors have urged caution and said the availability of drugs should improve.

Several states and UTs have declared mucormycosis, also called black fungus, as an epidemic under the Epidemic Diseases Act (1897).

They said treatment should be early as recovered COVID-19 patients are already weak in their body.

The doctors said that factors such as the use of steroids in treatment of COVID-19 and co-morbidities can make a patient more vulnerable to black fungus.