The fungal infection, with the scientific name mucormycosis, was previously very rare, but the number of cases has skyrocketed in India during the pandemic, and mainly affects people who have recovered from covid-19.

The infection is very aggressive and surgeons have been forced to operate on the eyes, nose and jaw of patients to prevent it from spreading to the brain.

The infection is estimated to have a mortality rate of 50 percent according to the US National Public Health Agency CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

However, mortality can vary greatly depending on how quickly the right treatment is initiated, and doctors in India report a much higher mortality rate during the ongoing outbreak there.

To date, 4,200 people have died of mucormycosis, according to Indian health officials.

Steroids may be behind it

In normal cases, an average of about 20 Indians a year are infected with "black fungus".

These are usually people with severely weakened immune systems, including HIV-infected people and recipients of organ donations.

Experts explain the increase with excessive use of steroids in the treatment of covid patients.

The Indian government classified mucormycosis as an epidemic in May, and on social media there are desperate prayers for medicine to treat the disease.

The pandemic is raging

The spread of infection must have reached its peak in May and June, and has since decreased.

But cases have increased among children in Rajastan in northern India, the Hindustan Times reports.

At the same time, the pandemic continues to rage in the country, with 39,742 new infections and 535 deaths in the last 24 hours.

In total, covid has so far claimed 420,551 lives in the country, according to statistics from Indian authorities.

No danger for Swedes

There is no indication that Swedish covid patients are at risk of suffering from "black fungus".

In an interview with DN, Anders Sönnerborg, professor of clinical virology and infectious diseases at Karolinska Institutet, says that he only knows of one case in Sweden.

Then it was about a patient who was seriously ill with AIDS in the 1980s.