Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital issued a press release on Tuesday reporting five cases of Cytomegalovirus in India.
Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital issued a press release on Tuesday reporting five cases of Cytomegalovirus in India. Some patients came in complaining of rectal bleeding, which upon diagnosis was linked to Cytomegalovirus. All these patients experienced this condition after testing positive for COVID 19.
According to Prof. Anil Arora, these cases were detected during the second wave of COVID 19 in April-May. All the patients were otherwise COVID immunocompetent and experienced rectal bleeding and pain in the abdomen after about 20 to 30 days of testing positive for COVID 19.
The report suggests that Covid infection and the treatment can be responsible for uncommon infections, one of which is Cytomagelo virus. This virus exists in 80 to 90 per cent of the Indian population. However, it is unlikely for symptoms to show because physical immunity is strong enough to make it clinically asymptomatic.
"In such cases, a high index of suspicion and timely intervention in the form of an early diagnosis and effective antiviral therapy can save many lives", said Dr. Praveen Sharma, Senior Consultant, Gastroenterology Department.
All five cases were from Delhi-NCR and were detected in the age group of 30 to 70 years. Four of them experienced bleeding in their stool while one other experienced intestinal obstruction.
