News reports out of India, the suspected source of the Delta variant are grim with health authorities outlining a huge increase in “black fungus” infections.
An epidemic of black fungus in India is spiralling out of control, with tens of thousands of COVID-19 survivors now battling the infection which can lead to blindness and death, reports BusinessInsider.
According to Indian media there were 31,216 cases of mucormycosis, locally called “Black Fungus” in the country and 2,109 deaths due to the infection — a 150% increase over the previous three weeks.
Mucormycosis is a bone-and-tissue-eating fungus that attacks the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs, the skin and the sinuses, where it often spreads to the eye socket and the brain if untreated. Treatment for the disease involves complex, often disfiguring surgery and an uncommon and expensive drug, contributing to a mortality rate above 50 percent.
Mucormycosis is not passed from person to person. Doctors believe that India’s crowded hospitals, and their dire lack of medical oxygen, left the fungus an opening to infect already weak patients.
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