mumbai more than two dozen cases of a deadly fungal infection mucormycosis have been recorded among recovered covid patients in city hospitals and at least six of them have lost their lives the postcovid complication has mainly been seen in diabetics or those treated with steroids delhi and ahmedabad too have reported several cases of mucormycosis known to have a fatality rate of more than 50andheris kokilaben hospital has seen six cases of mucormycosis since august of which four died the common thread in all was a recent covid infection history of diabetes and treatment with steroids in all cases disease progression was extremely rapid said dr tanu singhal an infectious disease expert adding that five patients had infection in sinus and nose and one in intestinedoctors at the ent department of rn cooper hospital juhu have seen a similar surge dr samir bhargava head of department said they have seen over 25 cases of the fungal infection in nine months the combination of covid diabetes and steroids that lower immunity are the main factors behind the rise we have seen a jump of 50 compared to previous years around 20 of patients have died he said most city hospitals said they used to treat barely 25 cases in an entire year before covidin covid patients onset of mucormycosis has been seen 23 weeks after treatment poorly controlled blood glucose can lower immune system and create an environment for the infection said dr rahul pandit intensivist at fortis hospital who treated two such cases treatment is painful and similar to surgically treating cancer said dr bhargava dr singhal said treatment with antifungal medicine too is expensive and rigorousat global hospital in parel ent surgeon milind navalakhe has operated on 10 cases in the past three months in almost all we surgically removed the palates and if involved in due course eyeballs also need to be removed the infection kills tissues causing necrosis he said adding surgery not only requires removal of dead tissues but even neighbouring healthy tissues to arrest the spread the infection can start from nose sinus and travel to the brain if not treated a typical presentation could be swelling of eyes and blackish discolouration of cheeksbesides diabetics infectious disease specialist dr om srivastava said patients with inflamed blood vessels due to covid are at risk that inflammation alone and treatment with steroids could make people susceptible to infections such as mucormycosis he said head intensivist at wockhardt dr kedar toraskar however said patients are suffering from other fungal infections too we treated two cases of aspergillosis and 14 cases of candidiasis he said