Iraq on Monday evening, recorded the first death from the black fungus disease, which in the past weeks has spread widely in India, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Saif Al-Badr, told AFP on Tuesday.

A medical source indicated that the man who died was 51 years old, and resides in Nasiriyah Governorate in the south of the country. So far, "four other cases of this disease have been recorded, and the patients are being treated in a hospital" in Nasiriyah governorate, according to the source.

The four patients are all men and were also infected with the Corona virus, according to the source.

And this disease, which is not contagious, began to spread, especially among those who recovered from Covid-19, especially in India earlier this month, and caused hundreds of deaths in it. It is a fatal disease that kills 50 percent of those infected with it within a few days.

People with diabetes and a weak immune system are more likely to develop it.

Black fungus is caused by organisms called molds that can enter the body through breathing or injuries to the skin.

So far, the numbers of daily COVID-19 cases in Iraq are still high, but stable, between 3,000 to 4,000 cases per day, at least, while a partial curfew is still in effect in the country.

As of Monday evening, the total number of cases of the epidemic reached 1,201,352 cases, including 16,375 deaths.

So far, 594,927 people have received the vaccine against Covid-19, according to data from the Ministry of Health, a very small number in a country of 40 million people.

So far, Iraq has received, through the Covax mechanism, about one million vaccines, according to the World Health Organization.

Photo by AFP