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Battling the bugs

(BBC 05/08/2009)

Whether its flesh-eating necrotising fasciitis or equine morbillivirus, in which the sufferer essentially drowns in fluid leaking from the lungs, infections - be they bacterial or viral - capture the imagination in a way that more workaday conditions such as cancer and heart disease cannot. And indeed our battle to outwit the bacteria which have caused death and decimation down the centuries has revealed just what a formidable foe they can be.

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'£135,000 pay-out for man who was left sterile after post-surgery infection

(The Scotsman 18/02/2009)

John McEwan, 45, and his wife have a daughter but their hopes of a bigger family were shattered when he underwent surgery for a stomach complaint. A judge ruled that the surgeon had been negligent and Mr McEwan, a former amateur international footballer, was struck by a form of necrotising fasciitis to his abdomen and genital area.

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Father dies from rare flesh-eating infection after getting tiny cut on his arm

(Daily Mail 24/12/2008)

A father died of a rare flesh-eating disease which infected his body through a tiny paper cut on his arm, an inquest has heard. Tony Williamson, 60, developed the deadly blood infection necrotizing fascilitis, which affects fewer than one in a million people. Within six days of cutting his arm, toxic bacteria had destroyed parts of the inner layer of his skin.

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'I caught a deadly flesh-eating bug - just by touching my face as I did the gardening'

(Daily Mail 04/11/2008)

Tracy Majoram's allotment was her pride and joy. Then one evening in when she was weeding, she brushed her hand across her face. Within 24 hours she was on life support in hospital.

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