- TORONTO - Canadian doctors are reporting great gains in treating people
with so-called flesh-eating disease. They're not touting a cure or promising
preventative medicine. But they are saving lives -- and limbs.
-
- Flesh-eating disease, or necrotizing
fasciitis, is caused by a deadly strain of Group A streptococcus bacteria
that also cause toxic shock syndrome. The bacteria travel so quickly through
the body that doctors have long thought the best way to stop them is to
begin an intense round of antibiotics and amputate the area affected if
needed.
-
- Now a new therapy called intravenous
immunoglobin (IVIG) may help to reduce death rates from the disease. Researchers
at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital are reporting the first study that shows
the treatment reduces death.
-
- The study found that of 32 patients with
the disease who received antibiotics and other standard therapy, only 34
per cent survived. But of 21 patients who also got IVIG, 67 per cent survived--
nearly double the rate.
-
- The doctors who treated Quebec Premier
Lucien Bouchard in 1995 were among the first to try the treatment. Although
he lost a leg, Bouchard probably owes his life to the experimental therapy.
-
- IVIG is made of human antibodies that
work by neutralizing poisons created by the bacteria that cause the immune
system to attack itself.
-
- Interestingly, it was developed in the
early part of this century using antibodies from horses. The therapy worked
so well, eventually the disease was nearly wiped out and the therapy forgotten.
|
