flesh eating bacteria and drugs...

[sky otter]

gruesome...it's not enough that this bacteria seems to be from the oil spills..
but now  drugs are getting into the act..


http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/26/first-cases-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-surface-in-us/
First cases of flesh-eating drug Krokodil surface in US
Published September 26, 2013
FoxNews.com

Krokodil, a flesh-eating drug which first surfaced in Russia more than a decade ago, has reportedly been found in the United States.

Similar to morphine or heroin, krokodil is made by mixing codeine with substances like gasoline, paint thinner, oil or alcohol. That mixture is then injected into a vein, potentially causing an addict's skin to turn greenish, scaly and eventually rot away.

Dr. Frank LoVecchio, co-medical director at Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center in Arizona, told CBS5 that the first two cases of people using the drug have been reported in the state. He declined to comment on the patients' conditions.

"As far as I know, these are the first cases in the United States that are reported," LoVecchio said, adding that the cases are believed to be linked. "So we're extremely frightened."

Users of krokodil — or desomorphine — had previously only been found in large numbers in Russia, where 65 million doses of the opiate were seized during the first three months of 2011, Russia's Federal Drug Control Service told Time.

"This is really frightening," Dr. Aaron Skolnik, a toxicologist at Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center told MyFoxPhoenix.com. "This is something we hoped would never make it to the U.S. because it's so detrimental to the people who use it."

To produce the potentially deadly drug, which has a comparable effect to heroin but is much cheaper to make, users mix codeine with gasoline, paint thinner, iodine, hydrochloric acid and red phosphorous. Codeine, a controlled substance in the United States used to treat mild to moderate pain, is widely available over the counter in Russia.

In 2010, up to a million people, according to various estimates, were injecting the resulting substance into their veins in Russia, thus far the only country worldwide to see it grow into an epidemic, Time reports.

The drug's sinister moniker — also known as crocodile — refers to the greenish and scaly appearance of a user's skin at the site of injection as blood vessels rupture and cause surrounding tissues to die. According to reports, the drug first appeared in Siberia and parts of Russia around 2002, but has spread throughout the country in recent years.

Officials at the Washington-based National Institute on Drug Abuse told FoxNews.com in 2011 that they had not heard of the drug prior to an inquiry by FoxNews.com.

Dr. Ellen Marmur, chief of dermatological and cosmetic surgery at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, told FoxNews.com in 2011 she had never seen any cases involving krokodil, but said it reminded her of "skin popping," or when intravenous drug users inject a substance directly into their skin due to damaged veins.

"This looks to me a lot like skin popping, what drug users used to do back in the day with heroin and other drugs," Marmur said. "It just kills the skin, that's what you're seeing, big dead pieces of skin."

Those large pieces of dead skin are referred to as eschars, Marmur said, leaving the user prone to infection, amputation and other complications.

Marmur said at the time that she was concerned the drug could eventually make its way into the United States.

"It's horrible," she continued. "These people are the ultimate in self-destructive drug addiction. Once you're an addict at this level, any rational thinking doesn't apply."

Dr. Lewis Nelson, a medical toxicologist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, also said in 2011 that he doubted krokodil would reach the United States due to the availability of other cheap, powerful drugs such as black tar heroin and Oxycontin.

"It's not going to become a club drug, I can guarantee you that," he said.

Click for more from MyFoxPhoenix.com.

FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller contributed to this report.



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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/louise-thompson-flesh-eating-bacteria-fifth-necrotizing-fasciitis_n_1567664.html



Louise Thompson, South Carolina Woman, Is 5th Recent Case Of Flesh-Eating Bacteria
Posted: 06/04/2012 10:55 am Updated: 06/04/2012 4:27 pm



A Greenville, S.C., grandmother is the latest person to contract necrotizing fasciitis in recent weeks, the fifth in a string of flesh-eating bacteria cases throughout the southern United States.

Fox Carolina reported that Louise Thompson first experienced signs of the flesh-eating bacteria on her leg about two months ago, when she began feeling a "pin-sticking" sensation on her skin. Doctors had to cut out a football-sized portion of her leg.

The New York Daily News reported that Thompson isn't sure how she got the infection.

Fox Carolina reported that Thompson was able to stand up for the first time last Friday, and hopes to leave the hospital soon.

There are no clear figures on the number of people who develop necrotizing fasciitis each year, though Vanderbilt University Medical Center estimates 250 or fewer cases annually, the New York Daily News reported.

For the full story on Louise Thompson, watch Fox Carolina's report above.

Before Thompson, Paul Bales, of Milledgeville, Ga., was the fourth recent case of flesh-eating bacteria. NBC 11 Alive in Atlanta reported that Bales needed a partial leg amputation because of the infection.

Other recent cases include Georgia man Bobby Vaughn, who has had five surgeries already for his necrotizing fasciitis, and Lana Kuykendall, a new mom in South Carolina who has had at least 11 surgeries.

Aimee Copeland, a 24-year-old Georgia woman, was the first in the string of recent cases, and she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria after falling from a homemade zipline. She has since had her hands, left leg and right foot amputated. The Associated Press reported that Copeland spoke for the first time last week.

The risk for necrotizing fasciitis increases when a person's immune system is already weakened; when a person has other health problems like diabetes or kidney disease; when there are cuts on the skin; when the body has decreased infection resistance because of medications; and when a person has just the chickenpox or another kind of viral infection, WebMD reported.

According to the 2007 World Journal of Emergency Surgery study, necrotizing fasciitis can be hard to diagnose -- but being too slow to diagnose it carries an increased risk of death.

The first symptoms are typically seen in the first day, and include new wounds elsewhere (even though the original wound usually doesn't yet look infected), the sensation of pain somewhere near the original wound and flu-like symptoms.

Three or four days later, the part of the body where the infected wound is may start to swell up and dark marks and rashes may occur. The actual wound may also start to have a "bluish, white, or dark, mottled, flaky appearance," according to the study. And within four or five days, the body's blood pressure may decrease and may experience septic shock. The person may also become unconscious.

Treatments for necrotizing fasciitis may include antibiotics and surgery so that the infected parts of the body are removed and don't spread the infection elsewhere, according to WebMD. Other treatments may be needed for the other problems that come with infection -- like possible organ failure or shock -- and hyperbaric oxygen therapy may also be used to stop the body's tissue from dying, WebMD reported.



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http://www.scilogs.com/from_the_lab_bench/better-left-alone-flesh-eating-bacteria-thrive-in-tarballs/

Better Left Alone: Flesh-eating Bacteria Thrive in Tarballs
1 August 2013 by Paige Brown, posted in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Health, Policy


Dr. Cova Arias, professor of Aquatic Microbiology at Auburn University, and two of her lab members had rather disturbing results published in the journal EcoHealth last December, 2011, on their discovery of high concentrations of Vibrio vulni?cus, also known as a type of flesh-eating bacteria, in tarballs.



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http://www.news-journal.com/panola/news/flesh-eating-bacteria-in-local-lakes/article_b4fce89a-a125-595a-9a4a-cf95e9a5f9d4.html

Flesh eating bacteria in local lakes

Posted: Friday, August 9, 2013 4:12 pm | Updated: 5:01 pm, Fri Aug 9, 2013.

Flesh eating bacteria in local lakes Rodger G. McLane The Panola Watchman Longview News-Journal

A DeBerry mother is warning everyone to take caution while relaxing in local lakes and ponds because her daughter nearly lost a leg after catching a flesh eating bacterial infection while in Martin Lake.

Stephanie Mills said her twenty-four year old daughter Amanda Lovell was with friends at Martin Lake in late July when what could have ended as tragedy started with a mosquito bite's open wound.

"She said she rubbed the bite some, but was trying not to scratch it," Mills said. "Not even two days later it looked like a boil, a funky looking infection the size of a cookie. It was yellow and around the yellowness was red. The yellow part was sinking in; making her skin indented where there was yellow."

It was then that Lovell was taken to the East Texas Medical Center Emergency Room in Henderson.

"She had to go in for emergency surgery because the infection had to be removed," Mills said. "It was already sinking, so they were pretty sure it was a bacterial infection that was eating her flesh. It was very fast acting."

The doctor who performed the surgery told Mills he sees cases like this more than you would think.

"He said the day he did my daughter's surgery, he had already done two other flesh eating surgeries," Mills said. "There was a chance when she was going in for surgery that she might lose her leg if they couldn't get it under control. Thankfully it wasn't that bad when they opened it up."

Lovell's daughter's doctor told the family to avoid water sources that have no flowing current.

"According to the doctor, when it's extremely hot like it has been, and if the water isn't flowing, then the bacteria is just in a breeding ground," Mills said. "It will be two months before she recovers and the hole heals."

Lovell was badly injured in a wreck roughly six months ago when her back, knee, ankle and the side of her face was broken. She is uninsured.

"If you can avoid water with no current, do it," Mills said. "The doctor explained to me this infection is becoming more and more common."

The Houston Chronicle reports that one person has died and three others have become seriously sick after contracting a similar flesh-eating bacterium from the Gulf of Mexico. The person who died was an 83-year-old Terrebonne Parish man who had an open wound that had water splashed on it while he was fishing. The three others also reported being sick were from Iberville, Calcasieu and Saint Bernard Parishes.

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http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/23557828/maui-man-recounts-ordeal-from-flesh-eating-bacteria
Maui man recounts ordeal from flesh-eating bacteria
Posted: Sep 28, 2013 9:28 PM EDT Updated: Sep 29, 2013 10:27 AM EDT
By Ben Gutierrez - bio | email

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http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/Flesh-eating-bacteria-reported-in-coastal-waters/B4J_P3k3KE6OH-XyQ8g7Ng.cspx

Flesh-eating bacteria reported in coastal waters of Flagler County
To date, 26 people in the state have reported being infected by the bacteria, according to the Volusia County Health Department.

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[Pimander]

[sky otter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/krokodil-drug_n_4073417.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Krokodil, The Flesh-Eating Street Drug That Rots Skin From Inside-Out, Expands To Illinois
Posted: 10/09/2013 6:32 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/10/2013 11:57 am EDT

It's called "the most horrible drug in the world" -- and it's come to Illinois.

Dr. Abhin Singala, a specialist at Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, said he's treating three people who took "krokodil," a cheap heroin knockoff from Russia known to cause such extreme gangrene and abscesses that a user's muscles, tendons and bones can become exposed.

"If you want to kill yourself, this is the way to do it," Singla said according to the Sun-Times.

(WARNING: Extremely graphic: See photos of the effects of krokodil)

According to Joliet Patch, Singla is treating what appear to be the first cases of krokodil reported in the Chicago metro area.

"As of late as last week, the first cases – a few people in Utah and Arizona – were reported to have been using the heroin-like drug, which rots the skin from the inside out," Singala said in a Tuesday press release. "It is a horrific way to get sick. The smell of rotten flesh permeates the room. Intensive treatment and skin grafts are required, but they often are not enough to save limbs or lives."

While the drug has been in Russia for at least a decade, krokodil is only now making its way to the states. The first reported instances of the intravaneous drug cropped up in Arizona roughly two weeks ago.

Krokodil, named for the scaly green appearance of skin once gangrene sets in, rose to popularity in Russia due to a heroin shortage. Also known as desomorphine, the budget drug (roughly one-tenth the cost of heroin) is made from codeine tablets combined with substances like gasoline, paint thinner or lighter fluid.

As Forbes notes, however, desomorphine itself isn't responsible for the "rotting from the inside-out" effect of krokodil; the drug was in fact patented in the '30s and marketed in Switzerland under the brand name Permonid.

The deadly effects from illicit version of the painkiller, however, stem from the substances Forbes says "amateur chemists" don't properly remove.

Still, those facts are of little comfort to Illinois health officials. The collar counties outside Chicago have seen an alarming spike in heroin deaths in the past few years.

The average life expectancy for a krokodil addict, Singala said, is less than two years.

In Will County where Singala is treating the krokodil cases, he warns "Will County's already burgeoning heroin epidemic may have created a tolerance level to the point where users are now looking for cheaper and better highs."

[robomont]

badly cooked meth will cause sores .so will some street coke that is cut with something i cant remember.
in the end it comes down to low immunity and open sores.this increases the posibility of infection then of corse these drug users will usually also deal antibiotics and not use a whole script which then makes the bacteria even stronger.drugs r bad ,mkay...

[sky otter]

http://local.msn.com/31-in-fla-infected-by-bacteria-in-salt-water


..10/11/2013.
|By Tamara Lush, Associated Press
.
31 in Fla. infected by bacteria in salt water
An infection caused by a bacterium found in warm salt water has infected 31 people in Florida,
10 of whom have died.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) —

Patty Konietzky thought the small purple lesion on her husband's ankle was a spider bite. But when the lesion quickly spread across his body like a constellation, she knew something wasn't right.

After a trip to the hospital and a day and a half later, Konietzky's 59-year-old husband was dead.

The diagnosis: vibrio vulnificus (vih-BREE'-oh VUHL'-nihf-ih-kus), an infection caused by a bacterium found in warm salt water. It's in the same family of bacterium that causes cholera. So far this year, 31 people across Florida have been infected by the severe strain of vibrio, and 10 have died.

"I thought the doctors would treat him with antibiotics and we'd go home," said Konietzky, who lives in Palm Coast, Fla. "Never in a million years it crossed my mind that this is where I'd be today."

State health officials say there are two ways to contract the disease: by eating raw, tainted shellfish — usually oysters — or when an open wound comes in contact with bacteria in warm seawater.

In Mobile, Ala., this week health department officials said two men with underlying health conditions were diagnosed with vibrio vulnificus in recent weeks. One of the men died in September and the other is hospitalized. Both men were tending to crab traps when they came into contact with seawater.

While such occurrences could potentially concern officials in states with hundreds of miles of coastline and economies largely dependent on ocean-related tourism, experts say the bacteria is nothing most people should worry about. Vibrio bacteria exist normally in salt water and generally only affect people with compromised immune systems, they say. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. If the bacteria get into the bloodstream, they provoke symptoms including fever and chills, decreased blood pressure and blistering skin wounds.

But there's no need to stop swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, says Diane Holm, a spokeswoman for the state health department in Lee County, which has had a handful of cases that included one fatality this year.

"This is nothing abnormal," she said. "We don't believe there is any greater risk for someone to swim in the Gulf today than there was yesterday or 10 years ago."

There have been reports this year in Gulf states of other waterborne illnesses, but they are rare. In fresh water, the Naegleria fowleri amoeba usually feeds on bacteria in the sediment of warm lakes and rivers. If it gets high up in the nose, it can get into the brain. Fatalities have been reported in Louisiana, Arkansas and in Florida, including the August death of a boy in the southwestern part of the state who contracted the amoeba while knee boarding in a water-filled ditch.

Dr. James Oliver, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, has studied vibrio vulnificus for decades. He said that while Florida has the most cases of vibrio infection due to the warm ocean water that surrounds the state, the bacteria is found worldwide, generally in estuaries and near the coast.

"It's normal flora in the water," he said. "It belongs there."

The vast majority of people who are exposed to the bacteria don't get sick, he said. A few people become ill but recover. Only a fraction of people are violently ill and fewer still die; Oliver said many of those people ingest tainted, raw shellfish.

Oliver and Florida Department of Health officials say people shouldn't be afraid of going into Florida's waters, but that those with suppressed immune systems, such as people who have cancer, diabetes or cirrhosis of the liver, should be aware of the potential hazards of vibrio vulnificus, especially if they have an open wound.

Holm said nine people died from vibrio vulnificus in Florida in 2012, and 13 in 2011, so this year's statistics aren't alarming. What's different, she said, was that victims' families are speaking to the news media about the danger.

Konietzky watched as her husband Henry "Butch" Konietzky died on Sept. 23. She said she feels it's her mission to let others know about the potential risks. Next week, she and her husband's adult daughter are scheduled to appear on "The Doctors" television program to discuss the disease.

"We knew nothing about this bacteria," she said. Never mind that both she and her husband grew up in Florida and have spent their lives fishing and participating in other water activities.

The couple had gone crabbing on the Halifax River near Ormond Beach on Sept. 21, she said. Her husband first noticed the ankle lesion in the middle of that night. He didn't wake his wife, but in the morning, told her that it felt like his skin was burning near the lesion. Patty Konietzky took a photo of it and hours later, when her husband said he was in pain and the lesions had spread, they went to the emergency room.

Konietzky said her husband didn't have any health problems or open wounds that she knew of, and when doctors told her that he had an infection in his bloodstream, she didn't think it was too serious. Within hours, her husband's skin turned purple and it "looked like he had been beaten with a baseball bat."

Nearly 62 hours after he was in the water, Butch Konietzky died. His wife notes that she, too, was in the same water — yet wasn't infected.

"To walk around in the water and doing the things we did, you didn't give it any thought," she said.

Konietzky said her husband wouldn't want her — or anyone else — to stop fishing or enjoying outdoor activities because of a fear of the bacteria. Nonetheless, she wants people to be aware of the risk and is pushing her local county commission to post signs warning folks about the bacteria.

"I'm not going to be afraid of it," she said. "I have to personally put some meaning on the loss of my husband. And speaking out is all I can do."
.

[zorgon]

Flesh-eating Krokodil drug surfaces in Chicago suburb

Three patients have been treated this week at a southwest suburban Joliet hospital in Chicago for using a synthetic opiate that doctors say rots the skin from the inside out.

"If you want to kill yourself, (using) this is the way to do it," said Dr. Abhin Singla, director of addiction services at Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet.

Krokodil, which is Russian for crocodile, started being manufactured about a decade ago in Russia, where heroin is harder to find, Singla told the Herald-News.

Codeine tablets are mixed with gasoline, paint thinner, butane and other chemicals to create an injectable drug, he said.

"It's about three times more potent than heroin, but the 'high' lasts only for a few hours," Singla said. And a hit of Krokodil costs about $8, while users pay $25-$30 for heroin.

But the chemicals destroy the blood vessels and begin killing tissue near the injection.

"You literally start rotting from the inside out," Singla said.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/10/flesh-eating-krokodil-drug-surfaces-in-chicago-suburb/

[zorgon]

Well that is ONE way to cure the Junkie epidemic... turn them all into ZOMBIES



(Graphic Photos) Flesh-Eating Drug "Krokodil" Hits Arizona



http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15642282-graphic-photos-flesheating-drug-krokodil-hits-arizona

[sky otter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/krokodil-flesh-eating-drug-ohio_n_4192328.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news




WBNS-TV
Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, say they may have encountered their first case of the flesh-eating drug, krokodil.

A homeless man in Columbus told medics he had used the drug, which derives its name from the green-black lesions it leaves on the skin of users after injection.

"The patient had a large, open wound and it is consistent with what we've been seeing, or the trend when people use this type of medicine [sic]," Deputy Fire Chief Jim Davis told WBNS-TV on Friday.

Other cases of the homemade morphine derivative has been reported in Arizona, Illinois and Oklahoma. To date, the Drug Enforcement Administration has not confirmed the presence of krokodil in the United States, although cases in the Chicago suburbs came under investigation in October after a local doctor reported seeing the drug's telltale gangrenous lesions.

Krokodil was first reported in Russia several years ago. It is made by cooking crushed codeine pills with household hydrocarbons such as paint thinner and gasoline. Krokodil is reportedly cheaper and more potent than heroin, but the impurities in the household chemicals cause flesh to decay after injection.

"It almost starts like a burn from a cigarette," Amber Neitzel, a reported krokodil user, told ABC Chicago affiliate WLS in October. "It starts purple and then goes into a blister after five or six days."

"You literally start rotting from the inside out," Dr. Abhin Singla, who said he treated krokodil users in Joliet, Ill., told the Sun-Times. "It's a horrific way to get sick. "Intensive treatment and skin grafts are required, but they are often not enough to save limbs or lives."

But despite the horror stories, some officials remain skeptical that the so-called "horror drug" is making inroads in the United States. People who inject drugs put themselves at risk for similar infections if they use dirty needles.

"We see IV drug users with horrible infections on a daily basis," Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward told The Huffington Post in October. "Infections from bacteria and dirty needles -- that doesn't mean it's [krokodil]."

But some people remain convinced that krokodil is an emerging threat.

"If it's on the table of our drug users, it's gonna get out there," Roger Lowe, who runs a traveling needle exchange in Northeastern Ohio, told WKYC in October. "I think we're gonna see more of it and I'm terrified of what's gonna happen."

[VillageIdiot]

I may be an idiot, but even I know where to draw the line. People who are dumb enough to inject themselves with this chemically insane cocktail deserve what they get. No sympathy here.