Word: strepping
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...notorious flare-up in Gloucestershire, England, of what the press dubbed flesh-eating bacteria alerted people to the dangers of streptococcus-A infections. The common bacteria that cause strep throat generally produce no lasting harm if properly treated, but certain virulent strains can turn lethal. Strep-A infections claim thousands of lives each year in the U.S. and Europe alone...
...tempting to think of the tiny pathogens that produce such diseases as malaria, dysentery, TB, cholera, staph and strep as malevolent little beasts, out to destroy higher forms of life. In fact, all they're trying to do is survive and reproduce, just as we are. Human suffering and death are merely unfortunate by-products...
...illness like tuberculosis, the immune system kills the body's own cells in the localized areas where TB germs have taken hold, including the lungs or the bones. With staph or strep, the sheer volume of disease-fighting immune cells can overload blood vessels, ripping tiny tears in the vessel linings; toxins can also damage the vessels directly. Plasma begins to leak out of the bloodstream; blood pressure drops, organs fail, and the body falls into a state of shock. In cholera, bacterial toxins attack intestinal cells, triggering diarrhea, catastrophic dehydration and death...
Until that point, antibiotics can easily wipe it out. What makes severe, invasive strep A different is that the microbe itself is "ill," infected with a virus. The virus tricks the bacterium into pumping out a highly toxic chemical. Among the possible effects: a catastrophic drop in blood pressure (which contributed to the death of Muppetmeister Jim Henson in 1990); scarlet fever; or, as the recent news reports point out, "necrotizing fasciitis," an illness that can eat away fat and muscle at the astounding rate of up to one inch an hour. If that last process starts, the only treatments...
...question is whether killer strep is on the rise. Some experts think it's not. But even those who say the bacterium is spreading believe this is part of a recurring biological cycle, not a new phenomenon. The scarlet fever epidemics of the 1930s and '40s were caused by invasive strep A, and there were reports at the time of necrotizing fasciitis. After a deadly run through the population, the bacterium subsided; most victims had either died or developed immunity. The big difference this time is better treatment. While some strains of strep are showing resistance to some antibiotics...