Flesh Eating News and Research

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New model could help test vaccines against the deadly Strep A bacteria

Researchers have successfully developed a new Strep A human challenge model, paving the way to test vaccines against the common deadly bacteria that causes sore throats, scarlet fever and skin sores.

10 May 2021

Houston Methodist receives FDA approval to transfuse donated plasma into a COVID-19 patient

Houston Methodist received FDA approval Saturday to become the first academic medical center in the nation to transfuse donated plasma from a recovered COVID-19 patient into a critically ill patient.

30 Mar 2020

Technique used to study human epidemiology reveals coral disease risk factors

In a study published in Scientific Reports, a team of international researchers led by University of Hawaii at Mānoa postdoctoral fellow Jamie Caldwell used a statistical technique typically employed in human epidemiology to determine the ecological risk factors affecting the prevalence of two coral diseases--growth anomalies, abnormalities like coral tumors, and white syndromes, infectious diseases similar to flesh-eating bacteria.

23 Feb 2020

Group A streptococcus strains that are less susceptible to commonly used antibiotics identified

Infectious disease scientists identified strains of group A streptococcus that are less susceptible to commonly used antibiotics, a sign that the germ causing strep throat and flesh-eating disease may be moving closer to resistance to penicillin and other related antibiotics known as beta-lactams.

30 Jan 2020

Surgeons restore full ambulatory ability in double-amputee teenager with flesh-eating disease

In a medical first in Quebec, Dr. Panagiotis (Peter) Glavas and his team at CHU Sainte-Justine and Universite de Montreal have managed to restore full ambulatory ability in a severely handicapped teenager who was left a double-amputee after getting flesh-eating disease in infancy.

17 Jan 2020

New clues emerge as to how a 2,600-year-old brain was well-preserved

Scientists who investigated a well-preserved 2,600 year-old brain have found evidence to explain why it survived.

9 Jan 2020

Two strains of the same bacterium work together to cause deadly flesh-eating disease

Two different strains of the same flesh-eating bacteria species work in combination to become more dangerous.

12 Nov 2019

$15 million grant funds new effort to develop universal vaccine for strep throat infections

CARB-X, an international non-profit partnership of private, academic and government institutions, has awarded SutroVax, Inc., a Northern California-based biopharmaceutical company, with an award of up to $15 million to develop a universal vaccine for Group A Streptococcus, the bacteria that causes pharyngitis or strep throat.

4 Sep 2019

Rutgers expert discusses how to stay safe as 'flesh-eating bacteria' move into new waters

Infections caused by the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus – known as "flesh eating" bacteria – are becoming more common in northern waters, whose surface temperatures are rising due to climate change.

30 Jul 2019

IVI and MCRI to coordinate global push for developing vaccine against Strep A bacteria

The International Vaccine Institute and Australia's Murdoch Children's Research Institute will coordinate a global push to free the world of Group A Streptococcus, the contagious bacteria that kills half a million people every year and is developing resistance to antibiotics.

31 May 2019

On the border, volunteer doctors struggle to provide stopgap care to immigrants

It wasn't the rash covering Meliza's feet and legs that worried Dr. José Manuel de la Rosa. What concerned him were the deep bruises beneath. They were a sign she could be experiencing something far more serious than an allergic reaction.

5 Apr 2019

Scientists discover trigger that turns strep infections into devastating disease

Houston Methodist infectious disease scientists have discovered a previously unknown trigger that turns a relatively run-of-the-mill infection into a devastatingly ravenous, flesh-eating disease.

18 Feb 2019

ANTRUK’s Annual Lecture sends out message on shortage of funds for antibiotic research

A national charity will use the 90th anniversary of the discovery of penicillin to call for a massive injection of funds into antibiotic research - or risk returning humanity to an age where people died from something as simple as a scratch.

17 Oct 2018

Texas man bitten by shark being treated for flesh-eating bacteria infection

Blain Shelton, a 42-year-old Texas man was swimming around 200 yards off the shore of Boliver Island near Galveston on 9th of August when he encountered a shark.

24 Aug 2018

Researchers discover biomarkers that accurately identify hypervirulent K. pneumoniae

Imagine a pathogen that infects completely healthy people and can cause blindness in one day and flesh-eating infections, brain abscesses and death in just a few days.

9 Jul 2018

Flesh eating ulcer cases on the rise in Victoria

Recent reports have shown a rise in cases of flesh eating ulcers in and around Victoria, Australia. Health experts have said that this could become a serious problem if not handled carefully. They have called for funds to deal with this menace. These flesh eating ulcers, according to sources have infected hundreds of individuals in regional Victoria.

16 Apr 2018

Time-lapse imaging reveals how antimicrobial treated surfaces kill superbugs in two hours

Experts at the University of Warwick have produced microscopic footage of the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria being wiped out in just two hours on an antimicrobial treated ‘intelligent’ surface.

13 Dec 2017

Scientists identify new genes needed by Streptococcus pyogenes to grow in human saliva

Scientific and veterinary research charity, the Animal Health Trust, in partnership with world-leading scientists at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, have identified new genes linked to how, Streptococcus pyogenes, an important cause of human disease, survives in people.

13 Nov 2017

GHIT Fund announces US$16.7 million to support development of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a unique Japanese public-private partnership formed to battle infectious diseases around the globe, today announced US$16.7 million to support development of new compounds for fighting malaria and tuberculosis, a leishmaniasis vaccine and drug, and a treatment for a long-ignored flesh-eating infection.

31 Oct 2017

Study identifies two genes involved in invasive group A Streptococcus infections

Group A Streptococcus bacteria cause a variety of illnesses that range from mild nuisances like strep throat to life-threatening conditions including pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and the flesh-eating disease formally known as necrotizing fasciitis.

22 Sep 2017