Flesh-eating Bacteria

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Some call it “horror'; and some call it “the super germ';, but now, our always known “regular'; bacteria, those one-celled creatures once considered under control with antibiotics, have invaded our hospitals and headlines with a vengeance. The vengeance used against us is caused by an existing organism called necrotizing fasciitis, the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, caused by Group A streptococcus. What this organism does is progressively destroy the human body tissue all the way to the bone. This organism has amazingly outsmarted us of even our most potent drugs.
In our community right now, medical researchers are testing antibiotics that may have chemicals to disable the resistance of this organism. But while research continues, it is vital to be aware of how these deadly germs spread and what we can do to prevent them.
Long before humans discovered antibiotics, they existed in nature. So naturally, after penicillin was introduced, some germs were already naturally resistant to the drug. As we used more and more of the antibiotics, we incidentally caused drug-resistant germs to progress. So, even if you’ve never misused antibiotics, you could still become infected by bacterium most drugs won’t kill. For each drug, there are germs genetically programmed to survive- some w/ outer walls tough for antibiotic to cross, others with ways to dump the drugs back out before they can work, and yet others can inactivate the antibiotic. Even worse, by passing tiny packets of genetic material to other bacteria, these survivor germs sometimes also pass the formula for resistance to the other bacteria. The best way you can protect yourself and your family against drug-resistant bacteria is by using antibiotics correctly. Taking them when they’re not needed encourages the takeover of drug-resistant strains in your body. (Redbook, pg.95) That’s because when antibiotics are given, the normal bacteria in your body are killed off, leaving lots of bacterial “parking spaces'; open. And the germ left to fill them is the drug-resistant ones. (Redbook, pg.95) So far, antibiotic resistance has not been a big problem with streptococcus A, the germ familiar to all of us for causing millions of cases of strep thr...

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...k two nurses to change the dressing- one to lift the folds of skin and the other to pack the wound. Continuing to mark the date and the margins of the wound, Katie’s nurses and doctors were hoping for a survival. Nutritional support at this point was entered via gastrointestinal tubing and by this time Katie was going through major psychological wounds that needed healing as well. Sadly the doctors were not able to prepare Katie to go home. Despite fasciotomy and the surgery, her infection continued aggressively. Her wound after surgery had a foul-smelling drainage, which increased in amount every day. Local cellulitis developed at the IV site on her arm. Just 10 days after the first surgery she underwent a second infection spreading around her hip area. Despite all efforts by Katie and the hospital staff, she died of septic shock and multisystem organ failure after 30 days in intensive treatment. Although flesh-eating disease is always life threatening and in most cases results in a fatality, it doesn’t have to have an unhappy ending if you use prompt recognition and go to clinical expertise within the first sign of the disease. Don’t let it get you!

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