Black Fungus: Eyes of 3 infected children removed in Mumbai

Three children infected with Black Fungus in Mumbai had to undergo surgery to remove an eye each to keep it from spreading.

According to NDTV, the children were aged four, six and 14 years old with the latter being a diabetic. Black fungus, associated with the COVID-19 infection, is mostly found in patients having co-morbidities like diabetes.

The younger children were operated upon at Mumbai’s KBH Bachooali Ophthalmic and ENT Hospital while the 14-year-old was admitted at Fortis Hospital.

“We saw two girls infected with Black Fungus in the second wave. Both were diabetic. After she (the 14-year-old) came to us, 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 told NDTV.

According to the report, the hospital received another 16-year-old patient who developed diabetes after recovering from COVID and a part of her stomach was found to be infected with Black Fungus.

“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,” Seth told NDTV.

Doctors at KBH Bachooali Ophthalmic and ENT Hospital said the two younger children were in the danger of losing their life if their eye was not removed.

“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,” NDTV quoted Dr Prithesh Shetty, Oculoplasty, Ocular Oncology and Ocular Prosthetic as saying.

Also known as mucormycosis, Black Fungus affects the brain, sinuses, eyes, and lungs and can be fatal in those with diabetes and immunocompromised diseases. Doctors suspect the condition is being triggered in COVID-19 patients due to the use of steroids in treatment, which to some extent brings down the body’s immunity and raises blood sugar levels in patients.