Top UK doctors have issued a warning following a rise in dangerous flesh-eating infections with a high fatality rate.
Detailing cases in a new report, the experts warned about Necrotising fasciitis, also known as the “flesh-eating disease”, which is a rare and life-threatening infection that can happen if a wound gets infected. It can appear anywhere skin or tissue is breached, including genitalia, and needs to be treated in hospital straight away.
Medics from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust wrote in BMJ Case Reports: “Necrotising fasciitis is an uncommon and rapidly progressive surgical emergency.” The team want other gynaecologists to keep an eye out following a worrying rise in cases at their hospital.
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Necrotising fasciitis can develops after a wound – from surgery or something as small as a cut, scrape or insect bite – gets infected. You may be more at risk from developing necrotising fasciitis if you have diabetes or a weakened immune system. Symptoms of necrotising fasciitis can develop quickly within hours or over a few days and if the bacteria infect the blood stream it can lead to sepsis.
At first you may have an intense pain or loss of feeling near to a cut or wound – the pain may seem much worse than you would usually expect from a cut or wound. You may also notice swelling of the skin around the affected area or flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, headache and tiredness.
Later symptoms can include; being sick (vomiting) and diarrhoea, confusion and black, purple or grey blotches and blisters on the skin (these may be less obvious on black or brown skin). The symptoms are similar to more common skin infections like cellulitis.
Necrotising fasciitis gets worse quickly and can be fatal. It must be treated in hospital as soon as possible. Treatment will usually include; antibiotics or surgery to remove the affected area. Even after successful treatment, there may be long-term changes in how your body looks and how you move or use the affected part of your body. Sometimes amputation of affected limbs is needed.
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Bill Sullivan, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Indiana University, told Live Science: “Necrotising fasciitis can occur anywhere skin or tissue is breached, including genitalia. It’s an extremely aggressive infection that can advance to a life-threatening situation in 24-48 hours. After these bacteria get into the skin, they release potent toxins that lead to rapid tissue destruction, liquefying muscle, nerves, and blood vessels,” reports The Sun.
In the report medics detailed the cases of three women who’d developed the horrifying infection on their vulva. They wrote: “Two of our patients presented to emergency with vulval necrotising fasciitis, while the third developed it as a complication of postoperative wound infection. All patients underwent extensive surgical debridement and required a multidisciplinary approach from gynaecologists, surgeons, the intensive care team and the tissue viability team.”
Dr Sullivan said: “Vaginal necrotising fasciitis could be considered more dangerous in the sense that it might be more difficult to diagnose in time.”
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