In India, nearly 9,000 people have been affected by a fungal infection, mucormycosis, known as black mold. The fungus is rare in humans, but is now found in corona patients and people who have had corona. The fungus attacks the cavities, the brain and the lungs.
Black mold normally occurs mainly in nature, for example in soil and plants, and in rotting vegetables and fruit.
According to doctors, there is a link with the steroids used to treat corona. Most of the patients are men who have been cured of corona and have been treated with steroids. They also have underlying conditions. Diabetics are especially at risk. In most patients, the fungus appears 12 to 18 days after they are cured of corona.
More than 80 percent of patients require immediate surgery. If this does not happen, the risk of death is high. There is a shortage of the right medicines, says the director of a large hospital in the city of Indore against the BBC.
There is already talk of an epidemic. New departments opened to combat the infection are rapidly filling up across the country, doctors report.
The number of registered corona patients in India has reached 26.5 million and nearly 300,000 corona deaths have been reported.
–
