EC Clinical and Medical Case Reports

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic had affected multiple aspects of health. Injudicious use of antibiotics had led to the development of drug resistance. Moreover, some patients during or after COVID infection developed mucormycosis. Hence, we mapped this study to evaluate the incidences of mucormycosis among COVID patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we included adult patients of either gender, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR and were admitted to the ICU either due to COVID-19 or mucormycosis. Relevant clinical and microbiological data were retrieved from the case sheets of the participants. All clinical specimens were processed according to standard microbiological procedures. Isolates were identified using VITEK-2 automated identification systems. The risk factors for mucormycosis were evaluated. We adopted convenience sampling for this study. R software (version 4.4.1) was leveraged for the data analysis.

Results: We applied our study criteria to 4027 patients in total. 846 subjects (21.0%) satisfied the requirements for eligibility. There were 414 (48.9%) females among them. The study population was 53.5 (45.0-63.0) years old on average [female: 52.0 (45.0-63.0) years, male: 53.0 (45.0-64.0) years, p = 0.42]. The risk of mucormycosis was greater in the steroid-using patients (OR: 1.146, p = 0.006). The likelihood of developing mucormycosis was increased in patients with active COVID-19 disease (OR: 1.200, p = 0.003). The mortality rate was higher among patients with mucormycosis than among those without (OR: 11.125, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Most of the patients were middle-aged. The risk of mucormycosis was higher among those with active COVID-19 disease and those treated with corticosteroids. The risk of mortality was higher among those with mucormycosis.

 Keywords: COVID-19 Infection; Mucormycosis; Steroids; ICU; Comparative Analysis

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