Gleneagles Global Health City (GGHC) sets up a new Task Force to help Covid-19 patients with Mucormycosis!

~GGHC’s 27 member Task Force to fight the Mucormycosis crisis by facilitating evidence-based treatment protocol ~

Chennai, 1st June, 2021: Gleneagles Global Health City (GGHC), a leading quaternary care multi-speciality centre in Chennai, has launched an exclusive 27 member Mucormycosis Task Force to treat Covid-19 patients with Mucormycosis.

The task team comprises of Eye surgeons, ENT specialists, Plastic surgeons, Neurosurgeons, Infectious Disease experts, Internal Medicine consultants, Diabetologist, Radiologist, Pathologist and Dental Maxillo facial surgeons working in cohesion with each other involving a multidisciplinary treatment plan.

In light of the sudden increase in the number of cases and deaths reported owing to Mucormycosis complications among the people recovering from Covid-19, the team of medical specialists at GGHC came together to form the Mucormycosis Expert Committee to facilitate evidence-based clinically approved treatment. They will be on the look-out for all the warning signs of the disease, such as pain and redness around the eyes or nose, fever, headache, coughing and shortness of breath, along with vomiting blood, changes in brain function like confusion, amnesia, loss of alertness and disorientation for early recognition and timely intervention.

Dr Subramanian Swaminathan, Director – Infectious Diseases & Infection Control, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai quoted “When India has been busy trying to fight the COVID 19 infection, there is a new nightmare which has crept in- Mucormycosis. Mucormycosis is not a new disease, but it’s a rare and devastating fungal infection. In a quaternary like ours where transplants are performed, dealing with mould infection is an ever concerning challenge due to the immune compromised status of the patient yet we have had successful results in treating the patient for fungal infection. Due to the sudden surge in the number of cases there are also other challenges with the supply of drug to meet the demands of the increased cases. But we at GGHC have the experience of handling such instances as our past experience has made us better prepared to face the current scenario.”

Speaking on the launch, Dr Ashwin Karuppan V, Consultant – Department of Internal Medicine and Diabetelogy, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai said, “Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis) is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes. These moulds live throughout the environment and affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and sickness. It most commonly affects the sinuses or the lungs after inhaling fungal spores from the air. It can also occur on the skin after a cut, burn, or other type of skin injury. Factors influencing Mucormycosis include AIDS, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, cancers such as lymphomas, kidney failure, organ transplant, long term corticosteroid and immunosuppressive therapy, cirrhosis, energy malnutrition, and deferoxamine therapy. With the outbreak of Covid-19 the number of cases of Mucormycosis have increased. And it demands the timely attention of a multi-disciplinary team.”

Dr Mouleeswaran, Senior Consultant – Histopathology, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai stated “though it’s a rare fungal disease, we have seen few cases especially in the post organ transplant patients and in uncontrolled diabetics, where the patients will be immune compromised. But this sudden surge exclusive to post COVID patients is a new phenomenon. As time is gold here, we give reports within few minutes with the help of our frozen sections and the final report within a day to assist the physicians, surgeons and the infectious disease specialists by providing all the possible relevant details which affects the patient prognosis and management of the Mucormycosis.”

Dr Uma Yeshwanth Consultant – Department of ophthalmology, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai said that “The fungal spores enters the nose and from here it invades the orbit which is a bony structure holding the eyeball and related structures, causing eye pain, double vision, swelling of the eye and even loss of vision. The fungus if left untreated can spreads backwards and enter the brain and through communication channels in the brain, it can affect the other eye as well. People experiencing any such eye related symptoms should seek urgent medical help as early intervention is the effective way of preventing this fungus known to cause major complications.”

While commenting on this achievement, Dr Alok Khullar, CEO – Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai, said, “Our team of medical experts were quick to understand the seriousness of Mucormycosis and formed an Emergency task force with a dedicated team of doctors from across a wide range of medical specialties. Since the number of patients infected are increasing day-by-day, we are trying to ensure that our Emergency Response Team is on stand-by for rapid and comprehensive assessment and definitive treatment. We have an excellent evidence-based protocol in place to ensure that all our patients get to experience world-class treatment and excellent clinical outcomes.”

About Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai

Gleneagles Global Health City, the sprawling 21-acre facility located in Perumbakkam – Sholinganallur, Chennai is the largest facility of Gleneagles Global Hospitals India. With a capacity of over 1000 beds and accreditations from leading agencies, the facility is Asia’s most trusted and leading Multi-Organ Transplant Centre. The hospital has undertaken several path-breaking Liver, Neuro, Heart, Lung and Kidney procedures. It is recognized by several national level accrediting agencies. World-class infrastructure, dedicated staff and a commitment for medical excellence are the USPs of this facility. The hospital has several achievements to its credit and continues to work on several pioneering procedures.

Gleneagles Global Hospitals has multi-super speciality hospitals in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. The brand is the most preferred hospital group for multi-organ transplants in Asia region. The parent entity of Gleneagles Global Hospitals is IHH Healthcare, a leading premium integrated healthcare provider with a network of 84 hospitals and more than 16,000 licensed beds. It is one of the largest healthcare groups in the world by market capitalisation and is listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia and Main Board of SGX-ST. IHH is a leading player in the home markets of Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and India, and in their key growth markets of China and Hong Kong.

For further information, kindly contact

Sushma Mathen | 99627 15769 | [email protected]

Rabe Daniel | 95000 55980| [email protected]

Akriti Gupta | 87549 40305 | [email protected]