Disease specialists in Saint John, Canada, are searching for the source of a case of a flesh-eating disease that killed a 37-year-old woman at the Saint John Regional Hospital. Dr. Jim O'Brien, chief of staff at the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, said they are trying to find the link between the patients who were infected with the disease, and have enlisted help from Health Canada and the provincial Health Department. The patients received antibiotics as a preventative measure. "When something like this occurs you look at all aspects of the system including instrumentation and everything else," O'Brien said. The bacteria, known as group A streptococcus, consumes flesh, often leading to amputation or death. It can be transmitted through body secretions exchanged during close contact.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Healthcare Purchasing News
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
Contact
Home
A
Fabry's disease