RESUMO
A feared fungal disease surprised and became a warning to severe cases of COVID-19, especially to health professionals involved with the pandemic. Designated as black fungus for public health services in India, where reported data reflects an increase of more than eighty times the expected increase for Rhizopus among the communities. The disease has become even more worrisome due to the high mortality already established as an opportunistic infection, coupled with the reserved prognosis for all those infected and hospitalised by the SARS-CoV-2 severity criteria. This patient, who was submitted to corticosteroid therapy, in an excessive dose, therefore immunosuppressive, developed a severe, disseminated clinical form. It was verified the progression of the lesions and thus the high risk of trans- surgical lethality, or, also, by the insufficiency of conduct in removing the lesions to their satisfaction. Thus, the therapeutic option is the associated use of micafungin, liposomal amphotericin B and isavuconazole for the regressive phase. The patient remains hospitalised with progressive and discrete improvement. Until the opportunity of reevaluation of the surgery by the interspecialty collaboration.
Uma temida doença fúngica surpreendeu e se tornou um alerta para casos graves de COVID-19, principalmente aos profissionais de saúde envolvidos com a pandemia. Designado como fungo preto para serviços de saúde pública na Índia, onde os dados relatados refletem um aumento de mais de oitenta vezes o aumento esperado para Rhizopus entre as comunidades. A doença tornou-se ainda mais preocupante devido à alta mortalidade já estabelecida como infecção oportunista, aliada ao prognóstico reservado para todos os infectados e internados pelos critérios de gravidade do SARS-CoV-2. Esse paciente, que foi submetido à corticoterapia, em dose excessiva, portanto imunossupressora, desenvolveu uma forma clínica grave e disseminada. Verificou-se a progressão das lesões e, portanto, o alto risco de letalidade transcirúrgica, ou, ainda, pela insuficiência de conduta na remoção das lesões a contento. Assim, a opção terapêutica é o uso associado de micafungina, anfotericina B lipossomal e isavuconazol para a fase regressiva. O paciente permanece internado com melhora progressiva e discreta. Até a oportunidade de reavaliação da cirurgia pela colaboração interespecialista.
RESUMO
Lobomycosis, also referred to as lacaziosis, is an endemic cutaneous and subcutaneous fungal disease that mainly affects Amazonian forest dwellers in Brazil. There is no disease control program in place in Brazil, and antifungal therapy failures are common, and the therapy is inaccessible to most patients. We performed a randomized, unblinded clinical trial testing the cure rate of multiple drug therapy (MDT) for leprosy with surgical excision, with or without itraconazole. A control arm consisted of patients who did not adhere to either therapeutic regimens but continued to be followed up. Multiple drug therapy consisted of monthly supervised doses of 600 mg rifampicin, 300 mg clofazimine, and 100 mg dapsone, in addition to daily doses of 50 mg clofazimine and 100 mg dapsone. The patients in the MDT plus itraconazole arm also received itraconazole 100 mg twice daily. We followed up 54 patients from the MDT group and 26 patients from the MDT plus itraconazole group for an average of 4 years and 9 months. The 23 controls were followed up for 6 months on average. The following endpoints were observed: 1) unchanged (no apparent improvement), 2) improved (reduction in lesion size and/or pruritus), and 3) cured (complete remission of the lesions, no viable fungi, and no relapse for 2 years after the end of the drug treatment). The results indicated a significantly greater likelihood of cure associated with the use of multidrug therapy for leprosy with or without itraconazole when compared with the control group. The addition of itraconazole to MDT was not associated with improved outcomes, suggesting that MDT alone is effective(AU).
