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Flesh-eating infection caused by two microbe strains discovered by doctors

JacksinPA

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Flesh-eating infection caused by two microbe strains discovered by doctors | Science | The Guardian

Infection found in patient who required quadruple amputation after developing rare condition

Doctors have discovered an aggressive flesh-eating infection that spreads around the body when two strains of microbe combine to overcome the host’s defences.

The infection was found in a patient who required a quadruple amputation after they developed necrotising fasciitis, a rare bacterial condition that is lethal in nearly a third of cases, even when treatment is on hand.
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When you visit the doctor's office or hospital, always remember to wash your hands with soap & warm water before leaving. Those alcohol-based hand sanitizers that you see all over the place have their own problems: bacteria that have developed an immunity to alcohol.
 
I remember the lady in Tennessee (I think) who went into the hospital to deliver her baby but left with no arms or legs.

The mortality rate can be much higher than a third:

The reported mortality in patients with necrotizing fasciitis has ranged from 20% to as high as 80%. [40, 27, 29, 41] Pathogens, patient characteristics, infection site, and speed of treatment are among the variables that affect survival. What is the mortality rate for necrotizing fasciitis?

I am a survivor, and here is my pro-tip: If you have a scratch or cut that turns red and hot, go immediately to the ER. Do not wait. Your life depends upon it.
 
I remember the lady in Tennessee (I think) who went into the hospital to deliver her baby but left with no arms or legs.

The mortality rate can be much higher than a third:

The reported mortality in patients with necrotizing fasciitis has ranged from 20% to as high as 80%. [40, 27, 29, 41] Pathogens, patient characteristics, infection site, and speed of treatment are among the variables that affect survival. What is the mortality rate for necrotizing fasciitis?

I am a survivor, and here is my pro-tip: If you have a scratch or cut that turns red and hot, go immediately to the ER. Do not wait. Your life depends upon it.

Thanks for the valuable tip. Five years ago we moved to a community with a lot of history & a lot of older people, as well as a wonderful hospital. I think we may need that medical resource in the future.
 
Thanks for the valuable tip. Five years ago we moved to a community with a lot of history & a lot of older people, as well as a wonderful hospital. I think we may need that medical resource in the future.

Hospitals themselves can be dangerous. There are no curtains in the major hospitals here anymore; they thought they had great protocols until they checked those ER curtains. Now they have no-touch sliding doors.

A month after my hospitalization, a prominent member of the community stepped out onto his own driveway barefoot and cut himself on something. The pain was so weird that he took himself to the ER a few hours later. A few hours after that, his leg was amputated. Within a day he was dead.

So it can kill you just that fast, and remember that ordinary antibiotics don't touch this stuff.
 
Hospitals themselves can be dangerous. There are no curtains in the major hospitals here anymore; they thought they had great protocols until they checked those ER curtains. Now they have no-touch sliding doors.

A month after my hospitalization, a prominent member of the community stepped out onto his own driveway barefoot and cut himself on something. The pain was so weird that he took himself to the ER a few hours later. A few hours after that, his leg was amputated. Within a day he was dead.

So it can kill you just that fast, and remember that ordinary antibiotics don't touch this stuff.

And we're running out of 'ordinary' antibiotics. Why? Because they aren't the Lipitors & Prozacs that you have to take every day for the rest of your life. Big pharma is not putting money into new antibiotics because the cash return isn't there.
 
Light @ the end of the tunnel: red-shifted, or blue- ?



So it can kill you just that fast, and remember that ordinary antibiotics don't touch this stuff.

Yes. & there's more & more acquired immunity among the bacteria, & nowhere nearly enough antibiotics in the development/trials/production pipelines. Apparently there's not enough money in developing/testing/producing them - but very soon, we're going to be out of effective antibiotics altogether. We needed a crash program 5 years ago or so; & the crisis - when it snowballs into sight on the 24/7 newscasts, is going to be very ugly.
 
Re: Light @ the end of the tunnel: red-shifted, or blue- ?

Ordinary antibiotics won't touch a superbug; you need a superdrug. The last time this topic came up at DP, somebody told me that there is an alternative to Vancomycin. Although I probably will, I hope I don't learn first-hand what it is. The thing is that once you've been attacked, you remain a go-to for the rest of your life because the infection, which is extremely opportunistic, doesn't leave the body. It just waits. So any invasive procedure, including dental work, is dangerous.
 
Re: Light @ the end of the tunnel: red-shifted, or blue- ?

Surprisingly, treatment with sulfur drugs have alleviated the issue in some patients. Sometimes old remedies are the best. Unfortunately most doctors do not look back. Sulfur drugs do not kill bacteria, but when combined with folic acid inhibitors, they inhibit microbe replication, allowing the immune system to destroy the remaining infecting organisms.

One of my neighbors was taking glyburide as part of his diabetes control regimen. He contracted a flesh eating infection when he cut his leg swimming in a South Carolina pond while visiting with friends who had retired there. Doctors noticed, the infection reduced in size notably after each dose of glyburide, added sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim to his therapy, a week later he was in full remission. The infection did some permanent damage to his leg, but no amputations, no death.

His is not the only case where sulphur drugs have prevented further damage. One would think this therapy would be well known by now, but sulphur drugs are extremely inexpensive, make little money for the pharma companies, and doctors don't read those medical journals, they are busy over booking and making sure the insurance forms and requirements for patient histories are filled out pursuant to laws and malpractice insurance requirements.
 
Flesh-eating infection caused by two microbe strains discovered by doctors | Science | The Guardian

Infection found in patient who required quadruple amputation after developing rare condition

Doctors have discovered an aggressive flesh-eating infection that spreads around the body when two strains of microbe combine to overcome the host’s defences.

The infection was found in a patient who required a quadruple amputation after they developed necrotising fasciitis, a rare bacterial condition that is lethal in nearly a third of cases, even when treatment is on hand.
=============================================
When you visit the doctor's office or hospital, always remember to wash your hands with soap & warm water before leaving. Those alcohol-based hand sanitizers that you see all over the place have their own problems: bacteria that have developed an immunity to alcohol.

There's disinfecting wipes at entrances at grocery stores. Use them to wipe the handles on carts and your hands.
 
And we're running out of 'ordinary' antibiotics. Why? Because they aren't the Lipitors & Prozacs that you have to take every day for the rest of your life. Big pharma is not putting money into new antibiotics because the cash return isn't there.

This is correct, and it's scary. The NIH should fund public novel antibiotic discovery and production, as for profit industry isn't going to do it. If there was a research facility like that in my area, I'd probably apply.
 
Priming the pump

This is correct, and it's scary. The NIH should fund public novel antibiotic discovery and production, as for profit industry isn't going to do it. If there was a research facility like that in my area, I'd probably apply.

FDA funds orphan drug trials (see Orphan Products Clinical Trials Grants Program | FDA), for those that look promising. Given the need & how long the window's been closing, I would think that there's a similar program up & running to develop more antibiotics - or functional equivalents - PDQ.
 
Re: Priming the pump

FDA funds orphan drug trials (see Orphan Products Clinical Trials Grants Program | FDA), for those that look promising. Given the need & how long the window's been closing, I would think that there's a similar program up & running to develop more antibiotics - or functional equivalents - PDQ.

i hope so.

i spent many years doing grant funded lab work. i would have been happy to do antibiotic discovery. the money made from sales could be fed back into the NIH. it wouldn't be profitable, of course, but it wouldn't need to be.
 
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