As India battles a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, a large number of cases of a deadly fungal infection called mucormycosis, or “black fungus,” has triggered a new health challenge in the populous South Asian country. 

Mucormycosis, which mainly affects people with weak immune systems and can lead to the loss of eyesight and the surgical removal of the nose and jaw bone to stop it from spreading, is being detected among patients who are recovering or have recovered from COVID-19, which has created a cause of concern among people.

"The situation is alarming," Dr. Hemant Deshmukh, dean of the government-run King Edward Memorial Hospital in the financial capital Mumbai, told Anadolu Agency.

"Right now, if you ask me the numbers, it is something like earlier there were five cases in 25 years, and now you are seeing 25 in five days...Such is the situation."

While the government, which is battling the second wave of the pandemic, has not released detailed data about the severity of the infection, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Sadananda Gowda last week wrote on Twitter that approximately 8,848 cases were reported across the country.

Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of the New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, said that while the number of infections being reported is increasing, it is not a communicable disease.

“It does not spread from one person to another like COVID-19 does,” he said during a briefing, adding most of those getting infected are found to have been either diabetic or taking steroids during COVID-19 treatment.

“This infection is seen very rarely in those who are neither diabetic nor taking steroids,” the top doctor added. “The diabetic patients are at a huge risk.”

The states of Maharashtra and Gujarat have reported nearly half of the cases, according to official data.

According to Dr. Hemant, of the total 237 cases reported in Mumbai city in Maharashtra, 62 patients of mucormycosis had been admitted to the hospital as of Monday.

"Most of them have moderate to severe disease," he said.

The situation is worrying in other states as well, where doctors say that the large number of cases has further strained the healthcare sector.

"The cases this year are 10 times higher than last year. We are doing three surgeries a week as compared to one such surgery in a year," Dr. Bulbul Gupta, an ENT specialist at the New Delhi-based Fortis Hospital, told Anadolu Agency, while terming the situation "quite bad."

Gupta added that there has also been a shortage of the treatment drugs of the deadly infection, which has made treatment more difficult.

High mortality

According to doctors treating the infection, the mortality rate is high, at over 50%.

The government has so far not released data on people dying from the fungal infection or those cases where doctors had to remove the eyes of patients in order to stop its spread to the brain tissue.

"The mortality is high in those patients where the infection has reached the brain. Eyeball removal is required if the infection has reached the eye," said Prof. Naresh K. Panda, who heads the Department of Otolaryngology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in the city of Chandigarh. The hospital currently has more than 50 patients admitted with the infection.

He added that some of the patients struggling with the fungal infection died in the hospital after the infection had reached a severe stage and had attacked their brain.

Amid the surge in the number of new infections, a number of states have declared the infection an epidemic. Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir has become the latest state to do so.

Doctors maintain that the rising number of cases has now triggered a new health challenge in the country, where as of Monday morning, the total number of coronavirus infections stood at 26.75 million.

"We have to treat coronavirus patients, and at the same time, we are now treating the recovered COVID-19 [patients] who are coming with this problem, and then preparing for a third wave as well. The situation is definitely challenging," added Dr. Deshmukh./aa

Mexico’s president announced Monday that Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its controlling interest in the Deer Park refinery in Houston, Texas to its partner Mexican state oil company Pemex for $596 million.  

According to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the deal makes Pemex the sole owner of the refinery. 

The Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership was a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and Pemex subsidiary P.M.I. Norteamerica, S.A. De C.V. 

Lopez Obrador declared that the acquisition was possible thanks to his anti-corruption administration and "an honest and austere government." 

"Today, we closed the operation to buy the Deer Park refinery in Houston, Texas owned by Shell. Now Pemex will have 100% of the shares. The most important thing is that in 2023, we will be self-sufficient in gasoline and diesel; there will be no increases in fuel prices,” he said on Twitter. 

According to the president, the refinery can process up to 340,000 barrels a day of oil into fuel. The recently acquired operation equates to the planned capacity of his pet project -- the Dos Bocas oil refinery in southeast Mexico. 

Lopez Obrador's administration has been looking to modernize the six refineries currently active in the country. According to the president, his administration is looking to open two additional refineries by the end of his term in 2024. 

“In this way, we are going to stop buying fuel and gasoline abroad. Pemex is going to process all the crude oil it is going to convert into diesel into gasoline. We are going to be self-sufficient by 2023," he added./agencies

Turkey is set to export unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Poland, in what will be "the first time in its history" making such a sale to a NATO and EU member country, the Turkish president said on Monday.

"With the steps we've taken in the last 19 years [in the defense industry], we've not only negated years of negligence, but also carried our country to the league of giants in this field," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, who was on an official visit to the Turkish capital Ankara.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak had announced on Satruday that his country would purchase 24 Bayraktar TB2 drones from Turkey.

Erdogan underlined that Turkey and Poland were "walking firmly" towards achieving their $10 billion target in bilateral trade volume.

"Turkey, as part of NATO's Baltic Air-policing mission, will soon deploy its F-16 jets in Poland," he added, hailing the dispatch of Polish maritime patrol aircraft and military missions to the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey under NATO's assurance measures adapted to Ankara.

For his part, Duda said Turkey was the "strongest ally" of Poland in "this part of the world" and thanked Erdogan for the Turkish pilots "protecting the skies."

"I believe that as part of the NATO framework, we can prevent threats to the two countries from inside and outside the country," he added.

Duda also echoed his Turkish counterpart's sentiments on their countries' commercial cooperation, which he said would bring them to their $10 billion trade target.

Prior to the joint news conference, top officials of the countries signed agreements in the fields of defense, agriculture, tourism, and sports.

Bayraktar TB2 entered the inventory of the Turkish army in 2014 and is currently used by several other countries, including Ukraine, Qatar, and Azerbaijan.

Turkey has used its cutting-edge drones effectively over the years in cross-border, anti-terror military operations, such as Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Spring Shield, to liberate its Syrian border from terrorist entities./aa

Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Monday pardoned 579 prisoners ahead of Africa Day, which falls annually on May 25.

The head of the country’s correctional service announced in Kabwe, 140 kilometers from the capital Lusaka, that this was in exercise of the president’s prerogative of mercy.

“The president’s action is in accordance with Article 97 of republican Constitution, which provides for presidential pardon and substitution of severe punishments imposed on convicted persons,” Chisela Chileshe said.

He added that the pardoned individuals had been rehabilitated and ready for reintegration in society.

This year's theme of Africa Day, the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity (now African Union) on May 25, 1963, is Arts, Culture And Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want.

It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent as well as around the world.

Zambia gained independence from Britain a year after the OAU, and is considered a continental peace haven, having helped many countries gain independence from colonial rule.

Lungu is expected to lay a wreath at the Freedom Statue and graves of deceased heads of state, and host an investiture ceremony to honor freedom fighters at the State House in Lusaka./aa

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship had to make an unplanned stop off the Spanish island of Mallorca on Monday to drop off five crew members who tested positive for COVID-19.

This is the first cruise ship that has stopped near the touristic region since March 2020 and its sight came as a surprise to many locals.

Although the massive ship has room for more than 4,100 people, it is only carrying around 1,400 crew members and fewer than 100 passengers, according to Spanish media.

The ship, called Odyssey of the Seas, left from Civitavecchia, Italy and is bound for the US state of Florida.

The infected crew members are set to be picked up by Spanish ships and taken to a private clinic to quarantine, according to the Balearic government. They are all reported to be asymptomatic.

According to health protocols, the cruise ship will also conduct more coronavirus tests to reveal whether more people have been infected.

The Odyssey of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s newest ship and has already had a fraught odyssey of its own.

Its launch was planned for last year, but was delayed, unsurprisingly, due to the pandemic.

It had a brief moment of optimism earlier this month when it was gearing up to run out of the port of Haifa, Israel. As the majority of the Israeli population had received a jab, it was going to be open to only Israeli residents from June 2.

However, the recent outbreak of violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel forced the cruise company to change its plans once again.

The company announced on May 15 that the Odyssey of the Seas would instead kick off its inaugural season from an undisclosed port in Florida.

Whether this outbreak of coronavirus infections and emergency stop in Spain will cause another delay to its inaugural season remains to be seen.

Royal Caribbean has said it is continuing to suspend the majority of its cruise routes until June 30, with most operations resuming in July.

Spain’s ports remain closed to international cruises, and the government has not yet set a day for when they will resume./aa