Match: Flesh-Eating Disease and [a class="callout" target="AnswersQueryWindow" onclick="window.status='close';" href="vny!://www.answers.com/main/ntq-s-died%20from%20flesh%252Deating%20disease%20in%20%20-fw-2-gwp-8-o-0-dym_only-true"]others[/a]. [div class="tipTabContent"] [span class="hw"]Flesh-Eating Disease[/span] [p class="shw"]Definition[/p]Flesh-eating disease is more properly called necrotizing fasciitis, a rare condition in which bacteria destroy tissues underlying the skin. This tissue [a href="vny!://www.answers.com/topic/death" class="ilnk" target="AnswersQueryWindow" onclick="window.status='close';"]death[/a], called necrosis or [a href="vny!://www.answers.com/topic/gangrene" class="ilnk" target="AnswersQueryWindow" onclick="window.status='close';"]gangrene[/a], spreads rapidly. This disease can be fatal in as little as 12 to 24 hours.[/p][p class="shw"]Description[/p]Although the term is technically incorrect, flesh-eating disease is an apt descriptor: the infection appears to devour body tissue. Media reports increased in the middle and late 1990s, but the disease is not new. Hippocrates described it more than three millennia ago and thousands of reports exist from the Civil War. Approximately 500 to 1,500 cases of necrotizing fasciitis occur in the United States each year.[/p]Flesh-eating disease is divided into two types. Type I is caused by anaerobic bacteria, with or without the presence of aerobic bacteria. Type II, also called hemolytic streptococcal gangrene, is caused by group A streptococci; other bacteria may or may not be present. The disease may also be called synergistic gangrene.[/p]Type I fasciitis typically affects the trunk, abdomen, and genital area. For example, Fournier's gangrene is a "flesh-eating" disease in which the infection encompasses the external genitalia. The arms and legs are most often affected in type II fasciitis, but the infection may appear anywhere.[/p][p class="shw"]Causes and symptoms[/p]The two most important factors in determining whether or not a person will develop flesh-eating disease are: the virulence (ability to cause disease)[i style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"] ... [/i][/p] [/div] [a href="vny!://www.answers.com/topic/flesh-eating-disease?method=26&initiator=answertip:continue" target="AnswersQueryWindow" onclick="var ac = document.getElementById('answertipClose'); if (ac) ac.innerHTML='close'; else window.status='close';return true;"][img]vny!://site.answers.com/main8399/images/answerTip_readMore.gif" class="answertipReadMore"][/a]
