The woman, Avery, said that her lips turned black and yellow and doctors diagnosed her with impetigo, a skin infection caused by Streptococcus bacteria, and sent her home with medicine to apply to the area, but it only worsened. When her lips turned black and started to weep, Avery rushed to the emergency room, sharing a video from her car where she was slurring her words with pain. She decided to share her struggle with others by posting a video on her social media account.

The brave woman, Avery, said that she contracted COVID while taking prescription medication to treat her acne.  According to Avery, her acne treatment contains a high dose of vitamin A, called isotretinoin, used to close the skin’s sebaceous glands. It’s common for it to cause dry, flaky skin – but when she caught covid, she never expected the virus, which affects the body’s respiratory tract, to have a stunning effect on her already damaged lips, developing yellow blisters and a thick crust.

Doctors diagnosed her with impetigo, a skin infection caused by Streptococcus bacteria, and sent her home with medicine to apply to the area, but it only worsened. When her lips turned black and started to weep, Avery rushed to the emergency room, sharing a video from her car where she was slurring her words with pain. She decided to share her struggle with others by posting a video on her social media account. In the video, she says that not only did she have COVID-19, but she also had an ear infection, sinus infection, and strep. She literally felt like she was dying at the time until her lips began to take a turn for the worst.

Avery would like people to be careful because what she went through was no joke. Since she had the cracks in her lips, COVID-19 manifested in her mouth. Her lip problem was a rare fungal infection called mucormycosis. As a result of this infection, a person’s nose or mouth can break out with black lesions. While some may need surgery, others might only need to take antifungal medication. “It’s called mucormycosis and it happened because I had the cracks in my lips.  It’s covid that manifested in my mouth because of my cracked lips, so be careful,” she explained in her video.

According to the health officials, mucormycosis is a rare fungal infection that can be deadly. The black fungus can affect sinuses, brain and lungs and in extreme cases, cause blindness. It can be life-threatening for patients who are immunocompromised. Doctors believe the rise in infections may be caused by patients who have been treated with steroids, which is common for severely ill Covid patients. Dear readers, we are republishing this story to raise awareness about mucormycosis.