Every day we have some new news that is related to the coronavirus. Specifically, today we stop at the dangerous black fungus that is affecting Covid-19 patients in India and also in various regions of America. What is black fungus?
It appears to be a rare infection caused by a fungus that blackens tissues and which, according to various agencies, is having a high incidence among sick and recovered Covid-19 patients .
The BBC reports that it would be mucormycosis, a very rare infection caused by exposure to fungi from the mucoral family. It usually affects the sinuses, brain, and lungs and can be life-threatening in people with diabetes or severely immunosuppressed people, such as people with cancer or HIV / AIDS.
And it is precisely because of this reduction in immunity that there are more and more cases of mucormycosis, especially in India, although cases are emerging in other countries.
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC) they announce that such fungi are very common and live throughout the environment, particularly in the soil and in decomposing organic matter. What is rare and infrequent is the infection on it, but the cases seem to multiply as the days go by, especially in India.
The BBC responds that Akshay Nair, an ophthalmic surgeon from Bombay, has explained that diabetes reduces the body’s immune defenses , the coronavirus exacerbates them and then steroids, which help fight COVID-19, act as fuel. And this causes more suffering and an added problem, as if that were not enough, in the middle of the pandemic.
Between December and February, they reported 58 cases of the infection in different parts of India . Most patients contracted it between 12 and 15 days after recovering from Covid-19.
Doctors are very concerned about the severity and frequency of this fungal infection, something that is happening in this second wave in India, and did not happen during the first.
What symptoms causes the black fungus
According to the BBC; Those who catch the dangerous black fungus usually have various symptoms such as nasal congestion and bleeding , swelling and pain in the eye, droopy eyelids, blurred vision , black patches of skin around the nose, etc.
