Flesh-eating disease hits Canada

A woman has died and another patient is in a serious condition following a new outbreak of “flesh-eating” disease in Canada.

A woman has died and another patient is in a serious condition following a new outbreak of “flesh-eating” disease in Canada. Both patients were treated at St Joseph’s Hospital in Saint John, New Brunswick, where the surviving patient remains in serious condition with necrotising fasciitis, better known as “flesh-eating” disease, hospital officials said. A 37-year-old woman and another patient were discharged from the hospital after undergoing surgery last week, the hospital said. They were both subsequently rushed back to hospital and kept in isolation. Hospital authorities said some hospital workers and others who may have been in contact with the two have been given antibiotics in the hope of stopping the disease spreading. Necrotising fasciitis begins with streptococcus A bacteria. Most who are exposed to the bacteria do not get sick and even among those who do become ill, very few get the flesh-eating disease. The disease however strikes rapidly and is frequently fatal. In 1994, former federal cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard, then premier of Quebec, lost a leg when he was struck with necrotising fasciitis. A hospital spokesman said it was not yet known how or why the latest outbreak occurred. (Source: ABC Health News, May 2004)