Comparison Between Pre-COVID and Post-COVID Mucormycosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Mucormycosis has emerged as one of the most fatal complications arising due to COVID-19, though it has to be mentioned that the disease is capable of causing serious illness even on its own. Objectives: Through this investigation, we would review the threat that mucormycosis poses, in terms of its prevalence and degree of severity both in the pre- and post-COVID world. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive examination of the studies published in online databases turned up 207 papers, 103 of which had undergone in-depth analysis, using both inclusion and exclusion criteria, shortlisting 15 studies that were appropriate for reviewing. Results: The incidence of mucormycosis was linked to coronavirus in 7 of the 15 studies that were chosen. The remaining eight studies had sufferers of various systemic diseases, like HIV/AIDS and diabetes. Discussion: All the cases suffered diabetes mellitus. Regardless of the time period of the chosen article, corticosteroids and antifungal medications were administered to all patients. There were noticeable differences in terms of mortality, predisposing factors, and virulence between pre-COVID and post-COVID mucormycosis. Summary and Conclusion: The prevalence of systemic conditions such as diabetes in cases of mucormycosis has remained the same even after the incidence of this pandemic, showing that the basic treatment modalities continue to remain the same irrespective of the damage that corona virus has caused to the sufferer, although mucormycosis arising due to COVID-19 differs from mucormycosis that was incident before the advent of the pandemic.