Two patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease recently died due to the presence of a drug-resistant pathogen called Aspergillus lentulus during the treatment at AIIMS.

Both patients — one in 50s and other in 40s — were suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They were admitted in the Delhi AIIMS, said a case report published in the Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology (IJMM).

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The first patient was referred from a private hospital, while the second patient was rushed to the AIIMS emergency with fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

The patients received oral injections of amphotericin B and voriconazole at AIIMS, according to the IJMM reports. Both patients died during the treatment.

The reports said that there was no improvement in the clinical condition of the first patient for more than a month and he died of a fungal infection. The second patient was also given amphotericin B, but his condition did not improve and he died after a week of multiple organ failure, the report said.

“As far as we know, this is the first report from India on a case of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in a COPD patient caused by Aspergillus lentulus,” underlined IJMM reports written by Jaweed Ahmed, Gagandeep Singh, Immaculata Xess, and Mragnayani Pandy.

Aspergillus lentulus got it’s first mention in 2005 in medical literature as a type of Aspergillus being the known cause of lung infections. Several countries have confirmed human infections. However, doctors at AIIMS said that this is the first time that this type of Aspergillus has been reported to infect a patient in India.