It starts with something as simple as a stuffy nose. But within days, your face swells, your vision blurs, and black, rotting flesh begins to spread across your cheek and nose. This isn’t a horror movie — it’s a real-life nightmare caused by Mucormycosis, better known as Black Fungus. This terrifying infection doesn’t just attack your skin — it invades your sinuses, eyes, brain, and lungs, devouring tissue as it spreads.
The culprit? Fungal spores lurking in the air around us. These microscopic killers are usually harmless — until your immune system drops its guard. Diabetics, cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, and even people recovering from COVID-19 are especially at risk. Add in steroids or oxygen therapy, and suddenly the perfect storm forms — your weakened body becomes the ultimate breeding ground for a fungus that thrives on destruction.
Once it starts, the clock is ticking. Black fungus moves fast — sometimes requiring emergency surgery to remove infected tissue, even if that means losing parts of your face. If untreated, the mortality rate can be over 50%. In places like India during the COVID-19 second wave, thousands were affected. So next time you think it’s “just a sinus infection,” think again — because Black Fungus doesn’t knock. It breaks in.