Flesh eating desease

[John Reinertson]

These bugs are real and they are serious.

BUT...

in twenty-four years as a busy Doc doing ER work, Family Practice, and supervising PA's and teaching medical students, I've seen two cases total, both of whom survived and did OK.
That leaves me ahead of most of my colleagues, who most often have seen none or one.

Neither case occurred diving. One was in a person with poorly controlled diabetes and one was in a lady where we never could decide how it started.

Treat injuries underwater as potential sources of infection, and check with your doc if they show the classic signs of infection described by Galen and Hippocrates;

Tumor, Calor, Rubor, and Dolor

( Swelling, Heat, redness, and pain)

Dive with reasonable caution, and the utmost enjoyment.
Remember, you're getting to see and do things most people in the world can only dream about.

See you underwater (Painlessly)

John

 

[chuckrt]

I have seen 2 cases of this nasty disease and both ended up dying however they were both diabetic and not in the best health anyway. As stated we can't live our lives worried about what might happen but in the words of NYPD Blue "Lets be careful out there".

chuckrt

 

[Ronmedic]

The local Fishermen up here have it hard. In the last 6 weeks two fishermen have contracted the flesh eating bacteria. One guy died as a result and the other was saved by the hospital,cutting his arm open from hand to shoulder and scraping out the infection,then massive doses of IV antibiotics. Both fishermen were stabbed by fish bone/spines. The fact is,the bacteria is out there,but I think it is easy for divers to avoid by cleaning wounds properly.

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

John, I realize this thread has addressed the strep "flesh eating bacteria" Doesn't Phisteria sp. also result in tissue necrosis, mental confusion, and other "toxic" effects?

I believe fishermen exposed to this bug also developed skin lesions and had memory imparement. So did researcher. This is the so called bug from hell. It has multiple forms--from cystic forms to amoeba forms. They sense when fish are present and then change from a benign form to a lethal form. They release a toxin into the water that disables the fish. These fish develope lesions and finally die.

I believe researchers have also found that they are more common in waters with farm runoff--especially pig farms.

Care to comment? You too Dr. Paul Thomas.

Larry Stein

 

[John Reinertson]

Pfiesteria piscicida has cause skin sores and nervous system damage. These bugs don't cause rapidly progressive tissue death and gangrene.
They are nasty bugs, and are still poorly understood. They can apparently infect intact skin (no cut or scrape necessary) and produce a toxin that damages nervous tissue as it spreads thru the bloodstream and locally.

They seem to occur in certain water conditions requiring higher than usual nutrient content in the water.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/pfiest.html

The above link connects to a number of papers on the subject.

A lot of what is said at present consists of mixtures of science with assertion and incomplete evidence, but it is indeed a nasty bug.

Dive safe and in clean waters.

John

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

Thanks John,

Those links are great. I was hoping one of you docs would have some info on this "cell from hell".

It is my understanding that some of the original information about the myriad of transformations and forms of this bug have not be reproducible. It is still food for thought.

Thanks

Larry Stein