- How serious is the ‘flesh eating’ infection outbreak spreading across Japan? South China Morning Post
- Japan’s tissue-damaging bacterial disease: What you need to know The Japan Times
- Outbreak of ‘flesh-eating’ infections in Japan raises global concerns The Times of India
- ‘Flesh-eating’ bacterium no cause for alarm, Japan tells world | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis 朝日新聞デジタル
- Opinion | A Tornado Ripping Through the Body: Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome Medpage Today
Tag Archives: Flesh
“Terrifying Rotting Flesh Wound:” The U.S. Spider with One Hellish Bite
Spiders are one of the hallmarks of Halloween. But did you know there is a spider living in North America with venom capable of destroying human flesh?
The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is native to the U.S. and has established itself in a number of states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
The spider, which is considered among the most dangerous in North America, has also been spotted outside this range in other states. But these tend to be isolated cases where brown recluses have been inadvertently transported to these areas by humans.
This species is common within its range and can is often found in homes, but as the name suggests they tend to stay hidden and are not aggressive, Jerome Goddard, a professor of medical entomology at Mississippi State University’s Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, told Newsweek.
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As a result, brown recluse bites are relatively rare and when they do occur, it is usually because a spider is trapped against the skin and feels threatened, for example if someone rolls onto one while sleeping.
The venom of this spider can cause damage to local tissues and may produce a variety of symptoms. In many cases, the individual who is bitten experiences no notable effects.
“Brown recluse bite reactions may vary from no reaction at all, to a mild red wound, to a terrifying rotting flesh wound,” Goddard said.
The bite of brown recluse may feel like a pinprick and is usually painless until three to eight hours later, when it might become red, swollen and tender, according to Goddard.
The central area of a brown recluse bite eventually becomes pale or blue, not red, Goddard said. After 24 hours have passed, intense pain may develop. Later, a black scab may appear and, eventually, an area around the site may decay and slough away in a process known as “necrosis”—or death of body tissue—producing an ulcer.
Finally, the edges of the wound thicken and become raised, whereas the central area is filled by scar tissue. Healing may take months, and the victim could be left with a sunken scar.
“Their bites can produce nasty, slow-to-heal lesions that leave unsightly scars,” Goddard said.
The primary component of brown recluse venom that causes necrosis in the skin is likely an enzyme called sphingomyelinase D, which degrades fibrinogen (a clotting factor) and fibronectin (a protein that plays a role in tissue repair).
“Sphingomyelinase D also disrupts basement membrane structures, which act as a platform for cells to grow,” Goddard said. “All of this leads to local tissue death.”
The proportion of brown recluse bites that result in necrotic wounds is not entirely clear because many self-reported bites are actually something else, such as a staph infection, according to Goddard.
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But the entomologist said his best estimate was that around 10 to 50 percent of brown recluse bites lead to necrosis in some form.
The lack of development of necrosis may be due to factors unique to the immune system of the individual that is bitten.
“Or like venomous snakes, perhaps brown recluse spiders may deliver ‘dry’ bites wherein they withhold or don’t inject much venom,” Goddard said.
In rare cases—perhaps less than one percent of incidents—brown recluse bites can lead to a potentially serious systemic illness roughly two to three days after the bite that affects the whole body.
This illness—known as “systemic loxoscelism”—is characterized by anemia, blood in the urine, fever, rash, nausea, vomiting and coma. In very rare cases, deaths have resulted from the systemic reaction of a brown recluse bite. The local necrotic wounds are not fatal.
The treatment of brown recluse bites is controversial and appears to be constantly changing, the Goddard said.
“A specific antidote—or antivenin—has shown success in patients prior to development of the necrotic lesion, but I don’t think it is widely available,” he said. “Also, some brown recluse bites are unremarkable, not leading to necrosis; therefore, treatment may not be needed in those cases.”
Some research has indicated that the application of ice to the bite site is effective. This may be because the necrotic enzyme sphingomyelinase D increases in activity as temperature rises.
At one time, early, total surgical excision of the bite site followed by skin-grafting was recommended. But more recent evidence no longer supports wound excision as a treatment, according to Goddard.
Some scientists and physicians have reported success in treating the individual with a medication known as dapsone. But some evidence shows that this drug is completely ineffective.
Japanese monkeys stealing babies, clawing at flesh, Yamaguchi city officials say
TOKYO — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.
The attacks – on 58 people since July 8 – are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.
The monkeys aren’t interested in food, so traps haven’t worked. They have targeted mostly children and the elderly.
“They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs,” city official Masato Saito said Wednesday.
When confronted by a monkey, the instructions are: Do not look them in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading open your coat, then back away as quietly as possible without making sudden moves, according to Saito.
A woman was assaulted by a monkey while hanging laundry on her veranda. Another victim showed bandaged toes. They were taken aback and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys were.
The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaque, the kind often pictured peacefully bathing in hot springs.
One male monkey, measuring 49 centimeters (1.6 foot) in height and weighing 7 kilograms (15 pounds), was caught Tuesday by the team with the tranquilizer gun. It was judged by various evidence to be one of the attacking monkeys and put to death.
But more attacks were reported after the capture.
No one has been seriously injured so far. But all have been advised to get hospital treatment. Ambulances were called in some cases.
Although Japan is industrialized and urban, a fair portion of land in the archipelago is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on people by a bear, boars or other wildlife have occurred, but generally not by monkeys.
No one seems to know why the attacks have occurred, and where exactly the troop of monkeys came from remains unclear.
“I have never seen anything like this my entire life,” Saito said.
Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
British man’s genitals attacked by flesh eating bug after Costa Rican surgery
British businessman, 47, is trapped in Costa Rica after suffering gangrene of the genitals following a horror reaction to routine surgery – as his family battle to bring him home for treatment
- Colin Graw, 47, underwent a minor surgical procedure in Costa Rica in January
- Four days later Mr Graw’s genitals were being attacked by a flesh eating bug
- He spent nine weeks in hospital fighting for his life amassing a bill of £80,0000
- His family in Lancashire have launched a GoFundMe to help him return home
A British businessman who underwent a minor surgical procedure in Costa Rica in January spent nine weeks fighting for his life after a flesh eating bug infected his genitals.
Colin Graw, 47, was discharged after the surgery but within four days he was in tremendous pain as the deadly necrotising fasciitis bacteria attacked his genitals.
Surgeons were forced to remove large sections of the affected area as the dead tissue spread rapidly.
British businessman Colin Graw, 47, suffered a life-threatening infection when his genitals were attacked by an incredibly rare flesh eating bug following a minor surgical procedure in Costa Rica
Mr Graw, pictured while in hospital in Costa Rica, spent nine weeks fighting for his life after
Medics struggled to identify the correct antibiotic to tackle the infection, leaving him in a critical condition.
Following his marathon hospital stay, he is still being given a spectrum of antibiotics to kill off the infection.
Despite being treated in a Costa Rican public hospital, Mr Graw has been left with a bill for £80,000 for his treatment to date although this is expected to rise to £150,000.
Mr Graw’s sister, Tanja Willis, 49, from Parbold, Lancashire, said her brother went to Costa Rica to follow up a business opportunity.
According to Ms Willis, doctors diagnosed Fournier’s Gangrene and were forced to remove layers of infected skin until they found healthy tissue.
Ms Willis said: ‘It’s been absolutely horrific for him, he is in exceptional amounts of pain, he can’t sit properly- he only had a 30 per cent chance of survival because it’s such a rare bacterial infection and there aren’t many antibiotics that can treat these types of infections.’
She said it was ‘awful’ being so far away from her brother when he was suffering a ‘near death experience’.
Despite being discharged from hospital, Mr Graw has to attend hospital three times a week to keep various infections from spreading.
Ms Willis said: ‘They’re still trying to fight off infections that are highly resistant to antibiotics. He is too ill to travel so we’re not in a position to get him home.’
Mr Graw’s sister Tanja Willis, 49, has launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for the businessman who has medical bills of more than £80,000. He is facing a further £70,000 in debts before his treatment is complete
Doctors have told Mr Graw that he has beaten the flesh eating bug, but without further treatment he will not be able to return home to the UK.
Ms Willis said: ‘I think he was exceptionally unlucky to contract bacteria like that. He was on the beach one day, and three days later he was in hospital fighting for his life, it happened so quickly. It was just supposed to be a day procedure – he just got an infection and it literally escalated from something minor to him being lying on his death bed.’
Ms Willis said she has launched a GoFundMe to help her brother cope with his bills.
She added: ‘I want him to be able to focus on his recovery and not have to worry about finances and how he’s actually going to recover from the financial impact of this.
‘I spoke to him yesterday and he said to me over the phone, he is absolutely shell shocked and overwhelmed by all the messages of support he has received from all over the world.
‘We can’t help him physically but what we can do is lighten the financial burden for him and I am so grateful to all of the donations we have received from people all over.’
Pope Francis says ‘sins of the flesh’ aren’t that ‘serious’
Lust is not the worst of the seven deadly sins, according to Pope Francis.
There are worse indiscretions than sex outside of marriage, the leader of the Catholic Church told reporters on the papal plane while en route from Greece to Italy on Monday, Reuters reported.
“Sins of the flesh are not the most serious,” the 84-year-old religious leader said regarding sex outside of marriage. Top transgressions instead include pride and hatred, according to Reuters.
Francis’ rankings of the worst wrongdoings followed the resignation of a Paris archbishop, who quit over a relationship with a woman earlier this month. However, the 70-year-old French cleric, Michel Aupetit, denied being intimate with the anonymous female, behavior that would break his promise of celibacy, according to Reuters.
“It was a failing against the sixth commandment (You shall not commit adultery) but not a total one, one of small caresses, massage given to his secretary — that is what the accusation is,” Francis clarified about Aupetit’s actions. “There is a sin there but not the worst kind.”
The pope said he accepted Aupetit’s resignation not because he had sinned but because the rumors were too damaging.
“He was condemned but by whom? By public opinion, by gossip … He could no longer govern,” Francis told reporters. “I accepted the resignation of Aupetit not on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy.”
Aupetit also issued an apology for any damage he had done.
“I ask forgiveness from those I might have hurt,” he said in a Thursday statement. “I have been deeply troubled by the attacks on me … I pray for those who, maybe, have wished bad things onto me, as Christ has taught us.”
Meat-Eating “Vulture Bees” Sport Acidic Guts and an Extra Tooth for Biting Flesh
A little-known species of tropical bee has evolved an extra tooth for biting flesh and a gut that more closely resembles that of vultures rather than other bees.
Typically, bees don’t eat meat. However, a species of stingless bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to intense competition for nectar.
“These are the only bees in the world that have evolved to use food sources not produced by plants, which is a pretty remarkable change in dietary habits,” said UC Riverside entomologist Doug Yanega.
Honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees have guts that are colonized by the same five core microbes. “Unlike humans, whose guts change with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria over roughly 80 million years of evolution,” said Jessica Maccaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student.
Given their radical change in food choice, a team of UCR scientists wondered whether the vulture bees’ gut bacteria differed from those of a typical vegetarian bee. They differed quite dramatically, according to a study the team published on November 23, 2021, in the American Society of Microbiologists’ journal mBio.
Raw chicken baits attracting vulture bees in Costa Rica. Credit: Quinn McFrederick/UCR
To track these changes, the researchers went to Costa Rica, where these bees are known to reside. They set up baits — fresh pieces of raw chicken suspended from branches and smeared with petroleum jelly to deter ants.
The baits successfully attracted vulture bees and related species that opportunistically feed on meat for their protein. Normally, stingless bees have baskets on their hind legs for collecting pollen. However, the team observed carrion-feeding bees using those same structures to collect the bait. “They had little chicken baskets,” said Quinn McFrederick, a UCR entomologist.
For comparison, the team also collected stingless bees that feed both on meat and flowers, and some that feed only on pollen. On analyzing the microbiomes of all three bee types, they found the most extreme changes among exclusive meat-feeders.
“The vulture bee microbiome is enriched in 
Individual from the Trigona family of stingless bees, some of which eat meat. Credit: Ricardo Ayala
The researchers noted that these bees are unusual in a number of ways. “Even though they can’t sting, they’re not all defenseless, and many species are thoroughly unpleasant,” Yanega said. “They range from species that are genuinely innocuous to many that bite, to a few that produce blister-causing secretions in their jaws, causing the skin to erupt in painful sores.”
In addition, though they feed on meat, their honey is reportedly still sweet and edible. “They store the meat in special chambers that are sealed off for two weeks before they access it, and these chambers are separate from where the honey is stored,” Maccaro said.
The research team is planning to delve further into vulture bee microbiomes, hoping to learn about the genomes of all bacteria as well as fungi and viruses in their bodies.
Ultimately, they hope to learn more about the larger role that microbes play in overall bee health.
“The weird things in the world are where a lot of interesting discoveries can be found,” McFrederick said. “There’s a lot of insight there into the outcomes of natural selection.”
Reference: “Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome” by Laura L. Figueroa, Jessica J. Maccaro, Erin Krichilsky, Douglas Yanega and Quinn S. McFrederick, 23 November 2021, mBio.
DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02317-21
Should US Worry About the ‘Flesh Eating’ STI Donovanosis?
In late October 2021, accounts of a “flesh eating” sexually transmitted infection circulated in international media publications when it was reported that cases were on the rise in the United Kingdom.
An article published on Oct. 21 by Birmingham Live, a tabloid newspaper based in England, reported that doctors were “warning” of the infection, describing it as “terrifying” because of its ability to “eat human flesh.”
“Though donovanosis cases remain relatively rare when compared with other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and diseases (STDs), they have been steadily rising and pose a genuine risk to public health,” read the Birmingham Live article.
And in the days that followed, the claim took off like a bacterial infection as media outlets, including USA Today and Fox News, contributed to concerns surrounding the prevalence of the disease both in the U.K. and in the U.S. But many headlines and social media posts were more alarmist than perhaps was warranted.
While it is true that such an STI exists, infection rates are still rare.
Donovanosis, or granuloma inguinale, is described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a “genital ulcerative disease” caused by a bacterium called Klebsiella granulomatis.
“The disease occurs rarely in the United States; however, sporadic cases have been described in India, South Africa, and South America,” wrote the CDC. “Although granuloma inguinale was previously endemic in Australia, it is now extremely rare.”
Typically spread through vaginal or anal sex, infection is characterized by painless sores or lesions on the genitals that exhibit a “beefy red appearance” that can bleed. (You can view images of these ulcers here, here, and here. Fair warning, they are graphic.) These “snake-like” lesions can also progress outside of the genital area to the pelvis, organs, bones, or mouth and can also develop secondary bacterial infections that may coexist with other sexually transmitted pathogens. Infection is difficult to culture, and diagnosis typically requires that a medical professional collect a biopsy from the ulcer or a tissue smear and look at it under a microscope.
Donovanosis is more common in places like India, Brazil and New Guinea. And while it may be on the rise in the U.K. and U.S., it is still less common than other bacterial STIs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. In fact, the U.S. National Library of Medicine estimates that there are about 100 cases reported each year, most of which occur in people who have traveled to or are from places where the disease is common, mostly in people between 20 and 40 years old. As The Washington Post reported, those numbers were equally as low in the U.K. Between 2016 and 2020, there were between 18 and 20 cases detected in England annually.
“Eighteen infections were logged in 2020, down from 30 in 2019, as widespread social distancing curbed its spread, along with those of other STIs,” wrote the publication.
Though rare, infection can be chronic, and relapse can occur between six and 18 months after seemingly successful treatment, which typically involve a prescription of antibiotics like azithromycin or doxycycline.
But because donovanosis is more common in low-income nations, the science surrounding infection, transmission, and treatment remains lacking.
“Although the disease has been described for more than a century, it is often overlooked due to its geographical distribution and low incidence. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are few published data on its incidence, even in endemic areas,” wrote Brazilian Professor of Dermatology Walter Belda Junior in a 2020 issue of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology’s scientific journal, Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia.
The Birmingham Live article did not give an explanation as to why cases of donovanosis were rising, but a 2021 article published in the online educational medical library StatPearls noted that incidence had been decreasing worldwide “most likely due to the realized role in HIV transmission.” HIV infection prolongs the healing time of donovanosis and because ulcers often bleed easily, they increase the risk of also becoming infected or transmitting HIV. As global health initiatives focused on eradicating HIV in the last several decades, cases of donovanosis have subsequently also largely decreased around the world.
Experts recommend that a person diagnosed with donovanosis avoid contact and sexual activity until the sores are healed. If a person had sex with a diagnosed patient within 60 days before onset of symptoms, they should be examined and given treatment.
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