Flesh-Eating Disease - Description



The term flesh-eating disease is not really correct. However, it does describe what seems to happen in the disease. An infection occurs that seems to consume body tissue. Reports about flesh-eating disease increased during the 1990s. But the disease has been known for a very long time. The Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 377b.c.) described the condition more than two thousand years ago. The disease was also common during the Civil War (1861–65).

Flesh-eating disease affects the arms and legs most often, but the infection can occur anywhere on the body.

Computed tomography (CT) scan:
X rays taken of a portion of the body from various angles in order to obtain a three-dimensional picture of that region of the body.
Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan:
Another name for a computed tomography (CT) scan.
Gangrene:
An extensive area of dead tissue.
Necrosis:
Abnormal death of tissues.

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