Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward mucormycosis among patients discharged from a COVID-19 care tertiary center in South India: A questionnaire-based survey

PURPOSE: To study the awareness of mucormycosis among discharged inpatients after receiving treatment for COVID-19 infection at a tertiary COVID care center in south India. METHODS: This was a telephone-based survey conducted using a questionnaire consisting of 38 questions in five sections in the month of June–July 2021. COVID-positive inpatients who had been admitted, treated, and discharged from a government medical college were contacted via phones, and their responses were directly entered into the Google Forms platform. RESULTS: A total of 222 participants were included in the study. Among all the participants, a cumulative 66% of participants had some knowledge of mucormycosis and 98/222 (44%) did not have any idea of mucormycosis in spite of being admitted to the hospital. More than 40% of them reported that their prime source of information was through mass communication. Around 81% of the respondents were aware that it can occur after COVID-19 infection. Among them, only 25 knew that systemic steroids were the main risk factor. Sixty-four out of 124 knew that diabetes is a major risk factor. Fifty percent agreed that a vaccine for COVID can prevent mucormycosis. CONCLUSION: Such knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) studies give us an idea of the impact of the measures taken for educating the public. In this study, a cumulative 66% of participants had some knowledge of mucormycosis and 34.7% were diabetics who had better knowledge and practice scores than non-diabetics. Sixty-six point nine percent felt that it was possible to prevent this condition.