Posted on 07/19/2012 2:25:17 PM PDT by BenLurkin
SAN DIEGO (CBS) – Tevita Alatini, a 7-year-old originally from Texas, died after developing a mysterious rash under his arm while vacationing with family July 9 at Camp Pendleton’s Lake O’Neill Recreational Park near San Diego.
Alatini was with his family when he developed a small rash that spread quickly. When he complained of a pain in his side, his family rushed him to the emergency room where he died a short time later.
A medical examiner in San Diego is waiting for tests to help determine Alatini’s cause of death.
“It sounds like an overwhelming strep or staph infection,” said Dr. William Thompson, who never treated Alatini but suspects the boy died from a flesh eating bacteria that devours tissue and muscle after entering the skin through a small cut.
Dr. Thompson says he’s surprised by the number of patients he has treated in the last few years with the flesh eating bacteria. Dr. Thompson says, just like Alatini, it starts with an aggressive rash and leads to organ failure.
“It’s disconcerting because the morbidity is so high with these patients,” said Thompson.
Thompson says the staph or strep that causes the flesh eating bacteria likely wasn’t picked up in the lake.
Alatini’s uncle Sione Niko spoke by phone with CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Stacey Butler and said his nephew never entered the water.
“He was just laying there, not feeling well and he started to feel really sick,” said Niko.
Why most people are resistant to the infection and others aren’t remains a mystery.
In a statement, the San Diego medical examiner’s office said Alatini had a severe infection. The exact cause of death remains undetermined pending further testing.
Sounds like evolution in action to me.
Never set foot on any beach from Los Angeles to San Diego,the beaches get covered with thousands of tons of raw sewage a year.
I hope you’re wrong.
The thought of infectious organisms mutating into more deadly strains is a disturbing one.
Is it local or is it imported from Mexico?
Both but more from Los Angeles about 90%.
IIRC, have read that some fresh water lakes have recently been found with small stinging jelly fish.
Some people are very susceptible to jelly fish toxins from stings and reaction follows the stings very quickly .
Yep.
http://freshwaterjellyfish.org/FAQ.html#2
“Do freshwater jellyfish sting?
”Yes. Like true jellyfish, they do have stinging cells (cnidocytes). This mechanism is designed for feeding, as the cnidocytes are utilized to paralyze macroinvertebrates and even small fish. There are conflicting reports whether these microscopic stinging barbs can penetrate human skin. Some individuals have reported that they encountered the jellyfish and felt it. Whether they were actually stung (involving a penetration of their skin) or whether the stinging barbs were released due to contact with the person and the effect was due to brushing against the released stinging barbs is unknown. The sensations reported range from mild itching, to red spots, to various levels of irritation, to a slight numbness. Others have reported handling the jellyfish or swimming among them with no adverse effects. Assuming that the jellyfish did release their barbs when handled or contacted, yet the person did not feel any effect, could be due to different individuals having different levels of sensitivity to the animal’s toxin just as folks do to the toxin or chemicals found in certain insect bites or stings.”
Sounds like all of those years of being a germophobe and never letting little Johnny’s body fight an infection is coming home to bite them in the azz.
With the outbreak of Smallpox, TB,Polio, and the Black Death (Bubonic Plague), albeit in a small number of cases, coinciding with an influx of illegal aliens, it’s not surprising that such deadly bacteria has manifests itself. Is Leprosy next?
I didn’t see that in the article. Where is it?
It’s not a quote...
How long have been watching people to scared to let any germ touch the body???
Guess what, the body needs to be able to take care of itself.
Poor kid. RIP.
Not that I have to like it, but that too, is evolution in action. Read “The Great Influenza.”
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