To make matters worse, why is Sange so miserable?

According to a report by the Global Times, as India approaches the terrifying "milestone" of 10 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, a new rare disease is spreading across India, and most of the patients are COVID-19 patients who are recovering. The disease has caused at least 9 deaths and more than 100 hospitalizations. This is really a double whammy for India, which is currently in dire straits!

What kind of disease is so serious?

It turns out that the real name of this deadly fungus is Mucor, which belongs to the subphylum Zygomycetes, class Zygomycetes, order Mucorales, and family Mucoraceae. Many people may not have heard of it, so here is a brief introduction.

1. This fungus is not uncommon.

It is widely distributed in nature and can be found in soil, air, feces, food and moldy objects.

2. But why do we rarely hear about it?

Because this bacterium is a conditional pathogen.

That is, the disease can only be caused under certain conditions.

You may still be confused after reading this. What on earth is Mucor? Well, have you ever eaten or seen fermented bean curd? That thing is the result of fermentation of Mucor. I hope it doesn’t affect your mood for eating fermented bean curd. . .

So what conditions lead to disease?

1. There are a large number of spores in the air and individual patients have poor immunity.

This is the most common infection, which is mainly caused by inhalation of spores in the air. Therefore, the most common sites of infection in mucormycosis are the lungs and sinuses. For example, rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis accounts for about one-third to one-half of cases.

2. Skin damage

If the damaged skin comes into contact with infected instruments, bandages, etc., and of course also with air, Mucor will take the opportunity to invade the skin and cause disease.

3. Once you are infected with this disease, it will be a bit troublesome

For example, a previous study of 225 cases of pulmonary mucormycosis found a mortality rate of 65%, with most deaths due to fungal sepsis (48%), respiratory failure (28%), hemoptysis (13%), and combined bacterial sepsis (5%)[1].

It seems that this bacteria is quite powerful. It is everywhere and can be spread through the air.

However, the reality is that the incidence rate of this disease is only around 20/100,000 when it is at its peak, so such a large-scale infection in India can only be said to be abnormal.

The biggest reason is that the local environmental factors have been polluted.

But this is India, anything is possible.

ref

TedderM, SprattJA, Anstadt MP, et al. Pulmonarymucormycosis: results of medical and surgical therapy. AnnThoracSurg, 1994, 57 (4): 1044-1050