A new life for black death

I read today in the FT of some more unwanted baggage coming with the coronavirus, coming in the form of a common fungus - common in the soil, in compost and in the walls of damp, old buildings - which can take the opportunity presented by weakened immune systems to get a foothold in humans. Treatment sometimes involves cutting out the infected parts - which may have turned black - perhaps the nose or the roof of the mouth - and these infections are often fatal. Diabetics are vulnerable, as are people taking steroids over periods of weeks to help them recover from coronavirus.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucormycosis.

Reference 2: Black fungus piles on the misery for India’s Covid victims: Doctors blame ‘irrational use of steroids’ for surge in mucormycosis, a deadly infection in the nose - Stephanie Findlay/FT - 2021.

Reference 3: https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/mucormycosis/definition.html. Offers plenty of further reading.

Reference 4: The ecology of the Zygomycetes and its impact on environmental exposure - M Richardson - 2009. The first reference given at reference 3. Open access (for once) from Elsevier. Qualifies the 'common' bit in the foregoing. Once again, a little knowledge is dangerous!