A Washington state man who lost his penis to flesh-eating bacteria in prison has negotiated a $300,000 settlement from the Washington Department of Corrections.

The 61-year-old man, Charles Manning, said he settled because he wants the traumatic matter to be over.The department said it settled to save the cost of litigation.Manning was serving time in 2004 for threatening a neighbor.

When he became ill at the Stafford Creek prison near Aberdeen it was diagnosed as a reaction to cold medicine. By the time Manning was airlifted to a Seattle hospital with an internal abscess, physicians had to remove several pounds of flesh from his pelvic region.

Posted: November 18th, 2008 under Flesh-Eating Bacteria.
Comments: none

A new report by The Mayo Clinic calls Morgellons disease “a mysterious skin disorder” characterized by disfiguring sores and crawling sensations on the skin.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) refers to the condition as “unexplained dermopathy.”

The agency has opened up a clinical investigation on the disease.

“Persons who suffer from this unexplained skin condition report a range of cutaneous (skin) symptoms including crawling, biting, and stinging sensations; granules, threads, fibers, or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin; and/or skin lesions, e.g. rashes or sores,” according to the CDC. “In addition to skin manifestations, some sufferers also report fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision.”
The condition was reported for the first time in 2001 by Mary Leitao—who was trained in biology—on behalf of her two-year-old son, who had developed skin lesions, and complained of “bugs.”

She examined the lesions and discovered colored fibers in them. She claimed that the fibers were actually emerging from the sores. The boy was examined by many physicians, who did not find any known disease in the child. Moreover, a number of doctors familiar with the case felt that Leitao might suffer from Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, and suggested that she should seek psychiatric care.

According to Leitao, she got the name “Morgellons” from the essay A Letter to a Friend by Sir Thomas Browne, published posthumously in 1690. Browne describes a certain “endemial distemper of little children in Languedoc [in southern France], called the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their backs, which takes off the unquiet symptomes of the disease, and delivers them from coughs and convulsions.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor

Posted: October 30th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, Morgellons Disease.
Comments: 1

The altruistic arm of Internet search engine pioneer Google, Inc. this week said it had given grants of more than $14 million to support physicians working in Southeast Asia and Africa to prevent the next pandemic.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.org’s Predict and Prevent initiative is supporting efforts to identify “hot spots” where infectious diseases may emerge, discover new pathogens in animal and human populations, and react to outbreaks before they become global crises.

New lethal infectious diseases crop up every year, Google said, including variants of HIV/AIDS, bird flu and SARS, as well as drug-resistant strains of ancient scourges malaria and tuberculosis.

Google said three-quarters of new diseases are “zoonoses, meaning they’ve jumped from animals to humans.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor

Posted: October 21st, 2008 under Avian Flu, Clostridium difficile, Developing Diseases, EV71, Ebola Virus, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, HPV, Hendra Virus, Impaired Immunity, Legionnaires' Disease, MRSA, SARS, West Nile Virus.
Comments: none

An infection from an acanthamoeba, a tiny parasite living in the cornea, if left untreated, may cause a patient to lose their eye in a matter of days.

Opthalmologist Dr. Kenneth Maverick says, “you ask a patient what their degree of pain is, and an acanthamoeba is a 10 out of 10. And that’s because it actually nibbles on some of the nerves in the eye.”

With a confocal microscope, eye specialists can see the tiny living organisms in real time that create dark circles on a scan. Powerful eye drops, made from the same chemicals as pool cleaner, kill the parasites.

The amoeba often come from pools, hot tubs, and even well water. Proper handling of contact lenses, as well as using new contact lens cases every month can help protect patients from infection.

“Just general common sense. And if you have a contaminated contact, throw it out,” Dr. Maverick said. “It’s better than losing your eye.”

Acanthamoeba infections are most common in the south where the weather is warmer. Overall, the risk of contracting the disease is about 1 in 10,000 for contact lens wearers.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor

Parasitical eye infections a growing concern.

Posted: October 8th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Flesh-Eating Bacteria.
Comments: none

A woman who survived a rare flesh-eating disease may have made it through the ordeal only because she was morbidly obese.

Clair Robinson, 23, of Victoria, Australia, reckons she is lucky to be alive after contracting the killer bacteria following surgery.

She mistakenly believed she had a simple fever and stomach ache until she was told it was flesh-eating bacteria eating through her stomach muscles and body tissue.

“Being big saved my life,” she said. “If I had have been smaller it would have eaten my organs and my insides. My kidneys and liver would have been eaten if I hadn’t have been big. Maybe fat people do have a good life after all.”

The patient contracted the condition, the clinical name for which is necrotising fasciitis after an operation to remove cysts from her ovaries. The bacteria is fatal in 50 percent of cases.

As her condition improved, she was airlifted to an Australian hospital’s intensive care unit in a bid to save her.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Morbid obesity an infection protection strategy?

Posted: September 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Flesh-Eating Bacteria.
Comments: none

An infant is dead as a result of a strange bacterial skin infection The young boy was one of two children transferred to Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary from Lethbridge Regional Hospital late last week with flesh-eating disease.

Doctors are still investigating exactly what disease the babies may have contracted.

The other child, identified as Annabell Forslund, is in the intensive care at the Children’s Hospital having undergone several surgeries. Relatives refused to comment on the child’s condition.

“Today is not a good day for us to talk,” said one of the dozen people seated around the table.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Flesh-eating bacteria harming infants, adults.

Posted: August 18th, 2008 under Diseases, Flesh-Eating Bacteria.
Comments: none