COVID-19 AND MUCORMYCOSIS: THE ROLE OF HYPERGLYCEMIA IN VIRAL AND FUNGAL COINFECTION

A fungal infection that is difficult to diagnose and treat, mucormycosis gained prominence with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as the infection with the new coronavirus predisposes patients to a greater risk of developing opportunistic infections, such as that caused by the “black fungus”. In order to identify the physiological changes and risk factors related to SARS-CoV-2 infection that favor the development of mucormycosis, an integrative review was carried out based on the PICO strategy in which searches in December 2021 in the Virtual Library in Health, on the PubMed portal and on the Web of Science, using the Mesh terms: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Mucormycosis together with the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. Full-text articles were included, available in journals/periodicals, published in Portuguese, English and Spanish from December 2019 to 2021 that addressed the metabolic changes caused by COVID-19 related to involvement by mucormycosis and excluded studies of review, editorials and duplicates. With the application of filters and exclusion of duplicates, 140 and 151 studies were selected by title and abstract, 113 convergent and 41 divergent; and, with the reading in full, 9 studies remained to compose the review. The results indicated a greater number of publications from India and a predominance of male and diabetic patients with elevated inflammatory markers. The results indicated a greater number of publications from India and a predominance of male and diabetic patients with elevated inflammatory markers. The higher prevalence of diabetics and hyperglycemia are in line with the hypotheses raised by other literature, given the impacts resulting from COVID-19 on glycemic control and the risks to the body from Diabetes. Thus, post-Sars-CoV-2 hyperglycemia may be a risk factor for the development of mucormycosis.