A woman claims acne medication turned her lips black and yellow after it triggered a rare side effect as she battled coronavirus.
Popular US social media user Avery believes she caught Covid-19 while taking prescription medication to treat her skin problem.
She explained in a TikTok video that her acne treatment contains a high dose of vitamin A called isotretinoin.
Then she posted a clip saying her treatment can cause dry and flaky skin - and claimed it was made worse by the virus.
After rushing to hospital she explained to her followers exactly what had happened.
"It’s called mucormycosis and it happened because I had the cracks in my lips," she said.
“It’s Covid that manifested in my mouth because of my cracked lips, so be careful, because it’s disgusting.
“When I got sick with the second Covid I got strep, a sinus infection, an ear infection, literally the whole works. It was terrible, I was dying for a while.
“Then I noticed my lips were starting to get bad.”
Isotretinoin closes up the skin's sebaceous glands and has been linked to the development of severe acne if they get clogged.
The condition is common in India due to a lack of drugs available to treat it.
Mucormycosis is the name used for any such fungal infection which is caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states symptoms vary depending on where the fungus is growing.
It can cause blurred or double vision and breathing difficulties.
Prof David Denning of the Global Action Fund for Fungal infections and the University of Manchester, states that mucormycosis has become a "serious complication of Covid-19".
He said: “Most common places in the body which are affected include the sinuses, nose, and the infection may spread in the back of the eye or down into the palette and forward into the cheek in one or both sides.
“In late cases it can affect the brain directly.
“The other organ most commonly affected is the lung, and it can cause a serious pneumonia which progresses and can invade blood vessels, and coughing up blood is relatively common.”
