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. 2024 Nov 15;10(11):796.
doi: 10.3390/jof10110796.

The Rising Threat of Mucormycosis: Oman's Experience Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Amina Al-Jardani  1 , Adil Al-Wahaibi  2 , Azza Al Rashdi  1 , Bram Spruijtenburg  3   4 , Noora AlBulushi  1 , R Sandhya Rani  1 , Hanan AlKindi  1 , Fatma Al-Yaquobi  5 , Bader Al-Rawahi  5 , Asma AlBalushi  6 , Saleh Al Azri  1 , Jacques F Meis  3   7 , Iman AlBuloshi  8 , Seif Al-Abri  9 , Ahmed Al-Harrasi  10 , Abdullah M S Al-Hatmi  3   10 , Amal Al Maani  11
Affiliations

The Rising Threat of Mucormycosis: Oman's Experience Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Amina Al-Jardani et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

Mucormycosis is a rare, severe fungal infection mainly affecting immunocompromised individuals. Because of limited data on its epidemiology in Oman, we present this national, multicentric, retrospective review that includes all cases of proven mucormycosis between 2006 and 2022 in Oman. There were 51 cases of mucormycosis reported in Oman. The annual incidence of mucormycosis was 0.38-0.69 cases per million population before COVID-19. During the pandemic, the incidence rose significantly to 1.76 in 2020, 5.31 in 2021, then decreased to 0.87 per million population in 2022. Diabetes was observed in 82.4% (n = 42) of the cases, COVID-19 in 47.1% (n = 24), and other chronic diseases in 72.6%. The use of steroids was reported in 33.3% (n = 17) and many patients (64.7%, n = 33) had multiple risk factors. The overall mortality rate was 41.2% (n = 21) and most deaths occurred within a month of diagnosis. Mortality rate among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 was 58.3% (14/24). Survival analysis showed a statistically significant association between COVID-19 status and patient survival (p = 0.024). Annual incidence of mucormycosis in Oman rose during the pandemic. This study highlights the epidemiological features of mucormycosis and emphasizes the importance of its inclusion in the national notifiable communicable diseases priority list as well as the importance of enhancing diagnostic capacities to detect and improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: COVID-19; Oman; epidemiology; mucormycosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of cases and incidence (per 1,000,000 population) of confirmed mucormycosis cases in 2006–2022.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier survival curves of all patients stratified by the presence or absence of diabetes, age, COVID-19 (p = 0.024), and multiple risk factors.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Phylogenetic tree based on multiple sequence alignment of ITS sequences. Isolates indicated in bold originate from the current study. The tree was rooted to Basidiobolus heterosporus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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