What is the dangerous black fungus and why is it alarming the world during the pandemic? “Journal The Capital of Mar del Plata

by Alejandro Rincón Moreno

A dangerous but rare infection caused by a fungus blackening tissue is worrying global health authorities. The alarms respond to mucormycosis, also known as Black mushroom, has a high incidence in sick and recovered patients Covid-19.

At least 19 regions of India have already elevated the advance of this disease to an epidemic category in the past two months, which has more than 14,000 diagnoses in this country, and parts of the world like America are already reporting , although limited, several cases of infections.

This concern is also growing because their mortality varies from 40% to 80% depending on the patient’s basic conditions.

But what is it, how is it treated, is it contagious between humans? And, more importantly, what real risk is there that its spread will worsen the current coronavirus pandemic?

A ubiquitous mushroom

Black fungus, formerly known as zygomycosis, is by definition a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that these fungi are very common and “live throughout the environment,” especially in soil and in decaying organic matter.

There are several types of this infection depending on the region of the body they attack, such as the rhinocerebral (sinus and cerebral), pulmonary, gastrointestinal or the one that infests the skin.

How is it acquired?

The first thing to know is that humans acquire mucormycosis when they come into contact with the spores of the fungus found in the air and in the environment.

It can also occur on the skin “after a cut, burn or other type of skin lesion,” according to the CDC, but what doesn’t happen is that it spreads between people.

The second thing is that mucormycosis mainly affects patients with basic health problems, such as diabetes or AIDS, or who are taking drugs that reduce the body’s ability to fight off germs and diseases, such as it. is the case in covid patients.

In fact, the consultation paper known as the Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Pharmaceutical Manual states that “it is likely that the spores of these molds are constantly aspirated, but they usually do not cause infection.”

As Sylvain Aldighieri, responsible for the response to Covid-19 at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), explained to EFE, the black fungus is considered “as an opportunistic fungal infection”.

“This pathogen mainly affects patients with controlled diabetes, patients with AIDS, patients with iatrogenic immunosuppression and patients who have undergone bone marrow and organ transplants,” said the expert.

In addition, he said, it is “an infection known to doctors since before the pandemic”, so there are effective diagnostic methods in the world.

Mucormycosis and Covid-19

According to Aldighieri, “In recent months, an increase in cases of mucormycosis has been observed in patients with covid-19 and the highest number of cases has been reported in India.”

“In patients with severe Covid-19 in the active phase or in the recovery phase, there are multiple risk factors or comorbidities, such as immunosuppression caused by corticosteroids,” he said, specifying that their use is a “risk factor” for acquiring infection.

En eso coinciden los CDC, que recuerdan que es factible que “algunos pacientes puedan tener COVID-19 y una infección por hongos al mismo tiempo”, pero se necesitan exámenes especializados pues las enfermedades fúngicas pueden, coronavirus síntomasie com compartmentavirus difficulty breathing.

This is because the main warning signs of murcomycosis are these, in addition to unilateral facial swelling, headaches, nasal congestion and black lesions on the nasal bridge or upper internal part. of the mouth.

India, the great home, America in danger?

India, which continues to be the country in the world with the most new coronavirus cases, with 1.3 million in the past week, is also at the center of an increase in murcomycosis diagnoses.

In a letter sent to the magazine Lancet respiratory medicine and released on June 3, scientists warned that “as India continues to stabilize the existing situation (due to covid), another looming threat has emerged in the form of a coronavirus-associated disease, murcormycosis “.

Akshay Raut, attached to Saint George’s Hospital and Grant Government Medical College in Mumbai, and Nguyen Tien Huy, from the School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health and Nagasaki University, sign the warning which speaks of 14,872 black fungus case. until May 28.

En vista de este rápido aumento, el Gobierno central indio está enviando el medicamento anfotericina B, principal tratamiento contra la enfermedad además de la cirugía para retirar los tejidos infectados, a todos los estados afectados y prohibió trasmitir otra por información de control the government.

Meanwhile, America, another hotbed of the covid-19 pandemic, has also recorded several cases.

According to PAHO data provided to Efe by Aldighieri, “in the region, there are public reports of well-documented cases in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay.”

“However, at the moment this is a very limited number of reports,” even with the Latin American Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (ReLAVRA), which receives these figures, concluded the expert without specifying a total number.

EFE.