Obese more susceptible to black fungus infection, says study on mucormycosis

Those who underwent organ transplantation, or those suffering from hematological malignancies are also at great risk, the study says.

HYDERABAD: A study co-authored by professors of the University of Hyderabad has determined that the top five variables positively impacted mucormycosis risk are obesity, anosmia, de novo diabetes, myalgia, and nasal discharge.

Those who underwent organ transplantation, or those suffering from hematological malignancies are also at great risk, the study says.

To predict the risk of mucormycosis, commonly known as black fungus, among the patients, scholars, including Raja Shekhar Bellamkonda and GVRK Acharyulu from the School of Management Studies of UoH and Dr Naresh, and Venkata Ramana from Gandhi Medical College and Hospital here, developed an Artificial Intelligence-based model.

It included the study of 1229 Covid-19 positive patients and 214 inpatients who were positive for both Covid and mucormycosis.

Authors used various models such as logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, and the extreme gradient boosting algorithm in their study.

The developed model can predict the patients at high risk, thus initiating preventive care or aiding in the early detection of mucormycosis infection.

The study has been published in the Journal of Infection, an official journal of the British Infection Association.

Five-fold

The five variables that increased black fungus risk are obesity, anosmia, de novo diabetes, myalgia, and nasal discharge.