Man Dies from Flesh Eating Bacteria Infection

A man from Arizona, infected with a flesh eating bacteria, died after four days. His family described the experience was “like a horror movie.”

Michael Funk just returned home from his Ocean City, Maryland condominium after cleaning crab pots last September 11. Funk fell ill and was taken to a hospital, where a surgeon removed infected skin from his leg. Then he was taken to a trauma hospital in Baltimore to get his infected leg operated on and later, amputated, DelmarvaNow reported.

Michael’s wife Marcia Funk told DelmarvaNow, “It was very fast moving,”  she added, “He was in so much pain.”

Funk added that Ocean City failed to give an adequate warning about spreading Vibrio Vunificus bacteria.

“I really feel they kept it quiet because it’s a tourist resort,” she told DelmarvaNow. “It’s like something out of a horror movie.”

Ocean City spokeswoman Jessica Waters told DelmarvaNow that they have made outreach and education campaigns, but never about the bacteria. She added the bacteria, “has never been part of our awareness efforts, at least to my knowledge.”

In 2014, state officials issued an advisory about an outbreak of bacteria that infected 57 people in 2013.

Infected through wound

Vibrio Vunificus is a bacteria most commonly found in warm, brackish waters with low salinity. According to Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, a person can be infected by either consuming raw or undercooked seafood, or in Funk’s case, from entering through a wound cut.

Funk’s widow told Delmarva now, “He loved the water, he loved boating, and he loved crabbing.”

 

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Tasmanian Devil’s Milk Possible Weapon Against Super-bugs

The Sydney University researchers discovered a possible powerful antidote in Tasmanian Devil’s Milk against antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The milk from the marsupial animal contains essential peptides that seem to fight deadly infections including Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus or MRSA.

Tasmanian Devils developed the milk’s useful component to help their offspring ward diseases and make them stronger in the process. They found an important element called cathelicidins, the infection-fighting factor in the marsupial milk. The Sydney University team initiated an endeavor to imitate the peptides.

Emma Peel, a Ph.D. student researcher said they found six important peptides. These peptides are present in other marsupial’s milk, which she mentioned are also worth studying. The student researcher said, “Tammar wallabies have eight of these peptides and opossums have 12”. She also said that research on koala’s milk is underway. Peel’s work was published in a Nature journal, Scientific Reports.

Thriving in Filth

Scientist believed that the Tasmanian Devil’s habitat served as a suitable sample for research since their offspring thrive in “relatively dirty environment”.

Only a few weeks into pregnancy, Tasmanian devil mothers give birth and the little marsupial snuggle in the mother’s pouch for the next four months.

The Australian researchers successfully imitated six Tasmanian devil’s peptides they discovered. They tested the newly formed peptides in 25 bacteria and six types of fungi.

Saha-CATH5

The Saha-CATH5, one of the synthetic peptides had a positive effect in fighting the MRSA virus. Most of the time, MRSA infection is harmless, numerous people carry the virus on their skin, nose, and throat. But if the virus enters thru an open wound, problems will start to occur. That is why people who stay longer in a hospital are at greater risk.

MRSA can only be treated with medications of combined antibiotics which can withstand resistant problems.

The Saha-CATH5 appears to work on Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, another hard to kill resistance virus. It also performs well against a fungus called Candida, which usually cause skin infections.

Researchers say that by 2050, superbugs can kill one person every three seconds worldwide. This promotes the immediate need to discover new drugs to combat treatment-resistant infections.

According to Dr. Richard Stabler, “We need to do this hunting in unusual places for new antibiotics. People are beginning to explore and find new molecules”. Stabler is an Associate Professor in Molecular Bacteriology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,

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