Black mushroom: Latin American countries where …

The first case of black mushroom throughout the region was detected in Uruguay May 26, while India alerted the world to this rare fungal disease which then affected 6,000 people in the country. A week later, the first recordings of Mexico and Brazil, which caused a phenomenon that seemed isolated to ignite the alerts among specialists in Latin America. Today we learn that he has also arrived in Argentina.

Concerning the Uruguayan patient, it was a 50-year-old patient with previous comorbidities (diabetes), who he had mucosal necrosis ten days after his coronavirus infection. His diagnosis was corroborated by infectious disease specialist Henry Albornoz and by the Chair of Infectious Diseases at the University of the Republic.

As for Mexico, the infection was detected in a 34 year old man from Valle Chalco, State of Mexico, who was admitted to Zone 71 General Hospital after being infected with coronavirus. “It is possible that this is due to use of very high doses of steroid drugsMexico’s Under-Secretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez said at the time.

In an attempt to calm people down, he explained that it is not a new pathogen but “it is a well-known fungus” which belongs to a “group of fungi called mucoral which produce a disease called mucormycosis” . According to the official clarified, it occurs in people who have a immune system failure temporary, “but very serious, very deep, profound immunosuppression”.

At BrazilAlso this week, the Hospital de Clínicas de San Pablo issued an alert to the Ministry of Health after informing that it had detected the first case of the disease in a 40-year-old man who presented a moderate image of covid-19 and that he does not have the rest of the conditions that usually allow mucormycosis to develop (diabetes, leukemia, and high dose corticosteroid use, among others).

In addition to São Paulo, the states of Santa Catarina and Manaus have also presented cases.