Sanitation, antibiotic dose can prevent fungal attack

LUCKNOW: Apart from Covid-19 patients with comorbidities and immunocompromised conditions, others can also acquire fungal infections due to overdose of steroids and antibiotics, lack of proper sanitation and hygiene and low immunity due to old age.
Take the example of 88 black fungus or mucormycosis patients in KGMU, of whom 18 are from Lucknow and the rest from other districts of the state.
All these patients either have severe lung infection or pneumonia due to Covid-19 or have recently recovered from the disease. They were being treated in various other hospitals and referred to KGMU after contracting black fungus infection. Of the total patients, 49 are diabetic and 25 were on prolonged steroids used to treat infection.
However, 39 patients are those who had Covid-19 pneumonia, but neither have comorbidities, but were never on steroids. However, they were given high antibiotic doses.
Another common factor in these 39 patients was that either they were above 60 years of age or had a long hospital stay, at least of 15 days.
According to doctors, long hospital stay means that a patient is exposed to infections for a longer period. If proper hygiene is not maintained, patients with no comorbidity can also acquire infection.
Prof Kauser Usman from KGMU’s medicine department said: “Comorbid patients already have low immunity, which declines further due to Covid-19. The immune system gets compromised when steroids or antibiotics are given. If proper sanitation and hygiene is not maintained, chances of infection increases. Elderly people are also vulnerable. If all these conditions are coupled with weight loss due to low nutritional intake, things become challenging.”
Prof Sheetal Verma, a faculty member at microbiology department of KGMU, said besides bad bacteria, antibiotics also kill good bacteria which help in maintaining strong immunity. “It has been found that non-judicious use of drugs and poor hygiene also results in infections. Few fungi grow in 1-3 days while some take 21 days. Fungal infection can be detected through CT scan but the culture of infected tissue provides accurate results,” she said.
“In some patients, diabetes is induced by Covid-19, hence hospitals must monitor blood sugar levels of non-diabetic Covid patients as well. Steroids should be given for a shorter duration as per requirement,” said the head of KGMU’s medicine department Prof Virendra Atam.