The Bloody Scourge

One of the deadly genera of bacteria that have mutating strains making invulnerable to common antibiotics is the scourge of the blood. Discover which microorganism it is.

“BLOOD smelled much the same, whatever the source,” wrote David Hewson in his first book, The Seventh Sacrament (2007).

The Group-A Streptococci (chainlike circles) are known among laboratory scientists for its unique ability to burst the red blood cells. And to this bloody scourges Streptococcus pyogenes belongs.

If you had a strep throat or sore throat recently, Pyogenes caused that. It is a mild infection in the leagues of impetigo, erysipelas, and cellulitis.

But Pyogenes can be life-threatening when it causes “necrotizing fasciitis,” a rare infection of the deeper layers of the skin. It is commonly known as “flesh-eating disease” for the obvious reason that the affected tissues simply turn violet (blisters may appear afterwards) and then die away. As high as 73 percent of patients with this disease die if left untreated.

It is not that Pyogenes “eats” the tissues for meals. But that it... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 30 May 2012.

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