-
Related
A rare flesh-eating bacteria has killed three elderly hospital patients in Christchurch, sparking fears the infection could spread.
Health authorities are on high alert and the affected geriatric ward at Princess Margaret Hospital has been isolated to try to prevent further infections.
The 19 surviving patients on the ward, and up to 40 staff members, have been treated with antibiotics as a precaution after doctors identified necrotising fasciitis as the killer infection.
Necrotising infections destroy muscles, fat and skin and can cause streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which leads to organ failure, plummeting blood pressure and rapid death.
Group A streptococcus is most often the cause of necrotising infections, but other bacteria can also be involved.
Ten to 15 isolated cases of the subcutaneous infection were diagnosed annually in New Zealand, but it was the first time multiple cases were believed to be linked in a related outbreak.
Canterbury infectious diseases physician Alan Pithie said that the three patients, two men and a woman, had died within a day or two of developing the infection.
