Mucormycosis: The hidden and forgotten disease.
J Appl Microbiol
; 132(6): 4042-4057, 2022 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35156271
ABSTRACT
Mucormycosis is a rare but serious fungal infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes. More attention has recently been paid to it due to its association with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Thus, it is important to review the progress of studies on mucormycosis and highlight the important findings in relation to epidemiology, clinical manifestation, major risk factors, diagnostic strategies and management. An electronic literature search was performed in PubMed using the keywords Rhizopus, Mucorales, mucormycosis, zygomycosis, zygomycetes, COVID-19, the drugs (azoles, posaconazole, isavuconazole, amphotericin B pharmaceutical preparations and caspofungin), combination therapy, diagnosis and clinical manifestations. Studies written in the English language from January 1960 to 2021 were considered for this review article. All search results were reviewed, and the relevance of each article was determined by the authors independently. The review emphasized the fact that the diagnosis of mucormycosis is difficult, it is necessary to have a high index of suspicion to identify it, surgical debridement should be done prior to the dissemination of infection to improve clinical outcomes and identifying underlying risk factors is important for proper treatment. Moreover, antifungal therapeutic options are few with polyenes and their combinations should be appropriate for empirical therapy while posaconazole and isavuconazole are best reserved for de-escalation, refractory cases or patients intolerant to amphotericin B.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Mucorales
/
Mucormycosis
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
J Appl Microbiol
Journal subject:
MICROBIOLOGIA
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jordan