Kala Bai, aged 50 years, tested negative last month after battling the COVID-19 infection for weeks. However, she reported that the right side of her body felt weak and tired, and was advised a CT scan of the brain. A small lesion found on the investigation was thought to be a tumor.

The woman had consulted Dr. Deepak Kulkarni, who is a senior neurosurgeon at the Medicare Hospital, Indore. A surgery was planned to remove what the doctor initially thought was a malignant tumor. He said that the peanut-size lesion increased in size by more than 20-fold in a just two weeks’ time. 

Doctors performed the surgery on 8th June and removed the tumor, which was sent for biopsy. The results surprised everyone. The doctors were thinking that it was a tumor but it turned out to be white fungus.

White fungus is caused by Aspergillus, a common fungus that everyone normally breathes in everyday life without falling ill. But, in a person with weakened immunity, for example, due to COVID-19, this fungus can cause an infection. The symptoms of white fungus are similar to those of COVID-19, such as fever and cough, thus delaying the diagnosis. 

In the present case, the volume of white fungus was 8.4x4x4.6 cm, which is by far the largest to be found in a patients body worldwide. Dr. Kulkarni stated that he had never seen a white fungus this huge in a patients brain. 

Kala Bais son, Ramesh Pawar, said that his mother is under anti-fungal treatment and undergoing physiotherapy also.

Numerous studies conducted globally point to a link between coronavirus and white fungus infection. Few cases have been reported in Delhi and Bihar. Before cases of white fungus began to be reported, thousands of cases of mucormycosis (black fungus) had been reported in patients across the country who were recovering from COVID-19.

Source : NewsBytes