Flesh-eating Bacteria Kills Young Football Player

Posted on June 14, 2006

An ABC News story has more about the University of Tulsa who football player who was killed by necrotizing fasciitis or flesh-eating bacteria.

On April 28, Devin Adair, a healthy, 21-year-old tight end for the University of Tulsa's football team, mysteriously died after spending a week in the hospital.
While it was obvious that he was very ill, he had no visible wounds to help doctors ascertain what was wrong.
When the autopsy report came back last week, the pieces of the puzzle came together: Flesh-eating bacteria had killed him.
Also known as necrotizing fasciitis, flesh-eating bacteria are potent enough to turn a wound as minor as a pinprick or paper cut into a massive infection causing amputation or even death. In Oklahoma, Adair's death is the latest of about a dozen people who have died from the infection since 2003.

The article says scientists are unsure exactly how people become and infected and what you can do to prevent it. The infection is caused by Group A Streptococcus (GAS) but many people that come into contact with GAS don't develop an infection. The ABC News article does say people with weakened immune systems tend to be more susceptible but healthy people have also been killed by flesh-eating bacteria. More information about necrotizing fasciitis can be found at CDC.gov.

HEALTH