美国国家公共电台 NPR "黑真菌"疯狂蔓延 印度抗疫雪上加霜（在线收听）

India has been battling the world's biggest and deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. On top of that, another health crisis is unfolding.

印度一直在与全球最严重、死亡人数最多的新冠肺炎疫情作斗争。除此之外，另一场健康危机正在印度蔓延。

Thousands of Indians have come down with a rare fungal infection just as they are recovering from COVID-19.

数千名印度新冠肺炎患者在康复后，感染上了一种罕见的真菌。

It's being called the black fungus, and it's been killing up to half of the people it infects.

这种真菌被称为黑真菌，目前已致一半感染者死亡。

NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Mumbai.

NPR新闻的劳伦·弗莱尔将从孟买带来详细报道。

Pushkar Saran lives in a suburb of India's capital, and he's one of millions of Indians who recently caught the coronavirus.

普什卡尔·萨拉恩住在印度首都郊区，他是最近感染冠状病毒的数百万印度人之一。

He got ill, but his prognosis was good. He's 42, he has diabetes and was prescribed steroids for treatment.

他虽然病了，但预后良好。他今年42岁，患有糖尿病，医生给他开了类固醇类药物。

But as he recovered from COVID-19, Saran came down with something else. He described his symptoms on local TV.

但在新冠肺炎治愈后，萨拉恩又感染了其他疾病。他在当地电视节目上描述了他的症状。

Left face numbness on my cheek.

我的左脸发麻。

The left side of my face went numb, and my eye turned red, he says. I couldn't feel my teeth or jaw.

他说，我的左脸发麻，眼睛变红。我感觉不到我的牙齿和下巴。

And I was also very scared.

我也很害怕。

He was scared because he'd heard all the news about a deadly fungus preying on people as they recuperate from COVID-19.

他害怕，因为他听到了一种致命真菌期将新冠肺炎康复者当作猎物的消息。

Well, if the coronavirus crisis wasn't enough, black fungus is wreaking havoc in the country.

冠状病毒危机还不够，黑真菌也在全国肆虐。

They call it black fungus because it often discolors human tissue as it kills it.

他们称之为黑真菌，因为其杀死人体组织时会使人体组织变色。

The scientific name for this infection is mucormycosis. It's from a fungus called mucor, which is ubiquitous in the soil in the tropics.

这种感染的科学名称是毛霉菌病。由一种名为毛霉的真菌引发，这种真菌在热带地区的土壤中随处可见。

And it's usually harmless, except when someone's immunity is very low, like Saran's was from COVID-19 on top of diabetes.

该真菌通常无害，除非有人的免疫力极低，就像萨拉恩曾感染新冠肺炎，而且患有糖尿病。

Somehow, uncontrolled diabetes makes a very fertile ground for the mucor to enter.

不知何故，无法控制的糖尿病为毛霉菌提供了进入人体的沃土。

Dr. Arunaloke Chakrabarti is a microbiologist in the northern city of Chandigarh and one of India's top experts on mucormycosis.

阿鲁纳洛克·查克拉巴蒂博士是印度北部城市昌迪加尔的微生物学家，也是印度顶级毛霉菌病专家之一。

He used to diagnose about 50 cases a year, mostly in people weakened by organ transplants or chemotherapy.

以前，他每年诊断出约50例毛霉菌病，其中多数患者因器官移植或化疗而变得虚弱。

But he's diagnosed 55 cases this week alone, all of them diabetics with COVID. And...

但仅本周，他就诊断出55例毛霉菌病，这些病例均患有糖尿病，而且感染了新冠肺炎。

Around two-thirds of the patients have been inappropriately given steroid, or they have given extra dose of steroid.

大约三分之二的患者不当地服用了类固醇类处方药，或是服用了过量的类固醇剂量。

Some doctors have overprescribed steroids for COVID, Chakrabarti says, and that may have made certain patients even more vulnerable to fungal infections.

查克拉巴蒂表示，有些医生已经过度使用类固醇类药物来治疗新冠肺炎，这可能使某些患者更容易受到真菌感染。

The mucor fungus grows in the respiratory tract and then spreads to the jaw, eyes and eventually the brain.

毛霉菌在呼吸道生长，之后传播到下巴、眼睛，最后传播到大脑。

Dr. Raghuraj Hegde is an eye surgeon in the southern city of Bengaluru who's been forced to make tough decisions for his mucormycosis patients.

拉胡拉吉·赫德博士是印度南部城市班加罗尔的眼科医生，他被迫为其毛霉病患者做出艰难的决定。

Yeah, it has been very challenging. To save the patient, we had to remove many eyes over the last one month.

是的，这非常艰难。为了救病人，我们在过去一个月里不得不摘除许多病人的眼球。

He's had to remove their eyes to save them. As if that's not bad enough, lately he's run out of antifungal drugs to help these patients recover.

他不得不摘除患者的眼球来救他们。似乎这还不够糟糕，但他为了帮助这些患者康复，最近用光了抗真菌药物。

They typically need seven doses per day, and he's only able to give them one or two.

患者通常每天需要7剂药物，但他只能给他们一两剂。

The drugs are on backorder with the government. Some desperate patients are turning to the black market amid shortages nationwide.

政府的药品没有按时交付。由于印度全国范围内均出现药物短缺情况，一些绝望的患者已转向黑市寻药。

So this has been very tough to explain to the patients. And they are frustrated, and we are frustrated as well.

这很难像患者解释。他们很沮丧，我们也很沮丧。

Because of the speed of this fungal infection, it gives us very little time.

这种真菌感染的速度过快，留给我们反应的时间非常少。

In the best of times, mucormycosis has a 10 to 15% fatality rate.

在最好的情况下，毛霉菌病的死亡率为10%到15%。

But in India right now, with COVID already collapsing the health system and shortages of antifungal medications,

但在印度，由于新冠肺炎已令卫生体系崩溃，再加上抗真菌药物的短缺，

mucormycosis is killing about half of the people it infects.

毛霉菌病正在杀死大约一半的感染者。

Lauren Frayer, NPR News, Mumbai.

NPR新闻，劳伦·弗莱尔孟买报道。