The other day I had a patient who had a diagnosis of Otomycosis. Now it sounds technical, but it’s simply fungus in the ear!
Then again, it’s not so simple. It’s a very painful condition and very irritating to say the least!
Also inpatient with immuno compromised status like severe diabetes it can turn out to be quite dangerous!
You need to go on cleaning the ears and maintaining a very strict hygiene!
Then again did you know that there was a fungus which actually almost destroyed a whole country?
The culprit was Phytophthora infestans, a water mold (oomycete) that acts like a fungus, which causes potato blight!
It was the year 1845–1852 and Ireland was dangerously dependent on a single variety of potato (the “lumper”) for food.
When the pathogen arrived, the entire crop was susceptible.
The blight turned potatoes into inedible, rotten sludge in days, destroying almost half the crop in the first year and three-quarters in the next!
The famine resulted in the deaths of roughly one million people due to starvation and disease, and caused another million to emigrate, drastically reducing the country’s population!
If you thought that it was only history even now fungus can wreck havoc!
Banana Panama Disease (Latin America/Asia): Fusarium oxysporum has nearly wiped out banana plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia and is now threatening banana production in Colombia.
Wheat Rust (Ug99): A deadly variant of Puccinia graminis that originated in East Africa is capable of destroying up to 70% of wheat crops and is spreading globally, threatening food supplies for billions!
Cryphonectria parasitica destroyed an estimated 4 billion sweet chestnut trees in the eastern United States!
More recently hope everyone remembers the black fungus and COVID!
Now even that was scary!
Rest assured, though the fungus, what we normally see in your ears can just be cleaned, and you can be fine!
Control, your sugars, though; avoid too much potatoes in your diet, maybe!
A little is fine though! Maybe make a tasty recipe of potatoes by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor!
Subh ratri…
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