Posted on 04/17/2014 1:59:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Using genetic sequences from more than 3,600 strains of bacteria, scientists were able to see that it took only four steps to create the unusual microbe that spreads rapidly and destroys the body's soft tissue. Their report was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by several types of bacteria, most commonly group A Streptococcus. (See images of Streptococcus and other microbes in the "Small, Small World" photo gallery.) An international group of researchers sequenced the genomes of group A strep bacteria in samples that had been collected from as early as the 1920s. Those sequences revealed that sometime in the past, group A strep was infected with first one virus and then soon after with another. With each infection, the bacterium gained viral genes that made group A strep more likely to cause disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
Four steps and it's Omega Man time.
Soylent green disposal bacteria for waste by-products
Bon appetit!
In 2003, my left hand was cut open on the pinky side and a week later it was infected with strep. I had surgery and was in hospital for 5 days. I almost lost all or part of my hand but I escaped that with nerve damage and a huge scar. It was scary for a while though.
What a great idea!!
Let’s publish the results in Farsi!
Whew! It’s still scary.
Scary story, glad you and your hand survived.
I had strep infections as a preschooler, and hope that has left me with some immunity to strep-related superbugs.
I blame Glo-bull warming. Please send me money for research.
Yeah, it was. Another part of the story was, well, I cut my hand on a nail while exiting my vehicle as I slipped on ice. MY employer at the time, a small startup did not pay out health insurance premiums either, but that was not known to us. We thought we were covered but we were not, we did not find out until later. Still since it involved the vehicle, my car insurance paid the medical costs, all of them. Anything involving your car and medical, the car insurance covers it, from injuring yourself while getting out and what not. I was lucky. The social worker at the hospital kept badgering me to go as a charity case but I kept telling her my car insurance covered it plus I had healthcare (or so I thought) coverage. Well I told her to give me her number and if I needed her, I’d call her. Well the car insurance came though and she called me and I told her and thanked her anyways. I remember it well, I went in the day after the space shuttle Columbia burned up. All I did in hospital was watch the shuttle investigation, Civil War documentaries and talk radio. BTW, my aunt, 6 months prior was in hospital too, she suffered a staph infection in her foot from a cortisone shot and she almost lost her foot.
I didn't know car insurance paid for that. Good to know.
The last time I was hospitalized was more than 50 years ago (before socialized medicine, so it didn't cost much!), for a minor thing that didn't need hospitalization, but my doctor put me in anyway. But about 10 years ago, I did catch a rotovirus from my mother, who caught it in an outpatient procedure at a hospital. Nasty, but nothing to what you and your aunt went through.
Amazing. Happy to hear that you got thru without losing your hand —= or more.
Looks like we should all be buying more auto insurance to pay our med bills when obummercare fails. “I caught pneumonia in my car.”
It was scary, if things when wrong, I could have a hook or something. My father joked after I got out of recovery, “they should have given you a hook.” B-) As to auto insurance paying the medical bills, I was lucky, that was my out. Still I can see it now, “um, I broke my hand when the car hood fell on it.” B-P
LOL
I caught pneumonia when the car window failed to roll up.
I need a liver transplant from drinking crankcase oil?
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