Necrotising Fasciitis
Necrotizing Fasciitis
Melissa Gilmore
Biology 211
Introduction to Microbiology
12/01/2007
Several years ago, the media became intrigued with a condition they termed “the flesh eating disease”. Sensationalism captured the attention of the American public, and most feared that they themselves could contract this horrible disfiguring disease. Nearly every day for more than a week, viewers were witness to extremely graphic footage of individuals who became victim to the most serious of cases. Many of them had eventually suffered the loss of a limb. Today, we are witnessing a similar fear created by the hype of evening news concerning MRSA. With the scientific facts involved regarding both diseases, one may conclude that concerns about these diseases have been somewhat unnecessarily inflated.
The majority of the public has only heard of “the flesh eating bacteria” within the last decade or two, but it was first described in 1871 by a Confederate army surgeon named Joseph Jones. By 1918, the cause of the disease was identified as a bacterial infection. Prior to an official name, the disease was commonly called “hospital gangrene”. Finally, in 1952, it was named necrotizing fasciitis which is derived from necrosis, meaning death of a portion of tissue, and fascia, referring to the fibrous tissues that enclose and connect the muscles. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, cases of necrotizing fasciitis (NF) were usually restricted to military hospitals during wartime, however, a few members of the general public also contracted NF. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, worldwide, rates of NF increased from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Increases in the rate and severity of NF are associated with increases in the prevalence of toxin-producing strains of S. pyogenes.
The most common cause for the development of NF is a bacteria called Streptococcus pyogenes, or Group A Streptococcus (GAS). This bacterium is a...
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