Bizarre Coincidence

Flesh-eating cases unrelated

Expert: Boulder incidents almost surely coincidence

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 17, 2006 at midnight

Coloradans shouldn't be alarmed that two people living within a half-mile of each other both contracted a rare flesh-eating bacteria, because the cases almost certainly aren't connected, health experts said Thursday.

The chances of a person in metro Denver contracting an invasive strep A infection - a category that includes flesh-eating bacteria - did go up by about 50 percent last year, but only to one chance in 11,000.

Robb Kimbrough, 51, had his feet amputated last fall when his invasive strep A quickly became necrotizing fasciitis, which some dub "flesh-eating bacteria."

Regina Daly, 39, who lives in the same subdivision as Kimbrough west of Boulder, contracted necrotizing fasciitis two months later, but is expected to recover.

A third Boulder man, John Stevenson, 70, died 48 hours after contracting invasive strep A, his son Brent Stevenson said.

In the fall of 2004, Nobel laureate Eric Cornell, of Boulder, contracted necrotizing fasciitis and had to have his arm and shoulder amputated.

"There clearly appears to be an increase in invasive strep A in the five-county area, compared to the previous three years," said Dr. Ken Gershman, chief of the communicable diseases program for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. "But it's still an extremely rare event."

Gershman said two cases within a half-mile are almost certainly nothing but a coincidence because invasive strep A can't spread from person to person unless the people share very close quarters - such as in a military barracks, preschool or nursing home.

"Often, things happen in clusters that have no explanation except a chance occurrence," Gershman said. "People like to blame it on radio waves or something. It's a natural human tendency to want to connect the dots, but most of the time there are not connections."

CDPHE has been collecting data on invasive strep A for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2002.

The first three years, the average number of cases for Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Jefferson and Douglas counties was 122. In 2005, the number was 188, though that might go down slightly as state epidemiologists disqualify a few cases for not meeting the "invasive" criteria, Gershman said.

Of those cases, about 10 percent typically are the highly publicized flesh-eating variety that gets into a muscle or deep tissue, spreads quickly and destroys the tissue so fast that amputation often is the only recourse.

The other 90 percent of invasive strep A cases involve the bacteria getting into the lungs, spinal cord or blood, causing pneumonia, meningitis, toxic shock syndrome or other serious, potentially fatal illnesses.

Strep A infections that aren't invasive include strep throat or the skin infection, impetigo.

Everyone carries strep A on their skin and in their throat.

"We the people are the reservoir," Gershman said. "We live in a sea of strep A. For the most part, it doesn't bother us too much except for the nuisance of a strep throat."

But every once in a while an aggressive bacteria gets into a cut in the foot or arm, settles in nicely and multiplies rapidly.

Humans have to learn to live with strep A because there's no getting rid of the stuff, medical experts say.

There are some prudent things to do, however. Cuts and scrapes should be cleaned and covered quickly so they can heal without infection.

"You don't want to let bacteria set up shop and invade," Gershman said.

Kimbrough, a construction worker, remembers having open cuts on the bottom of his feet shortly before he got sick. He said he went to the hospital on Oct. 14, thinking he had a bad case of the flu.

That's about all he remembers before awaking two weeks later, his feet amputated. Family and friends told him the strep had turned toxic

Geez!!!

I just noticed the date of the article.

Do you use Pony Express for your news?

Ed>>>

My previous neighbor, who also happens to be my attorney, went through that with his father 2-3 years ago, which caused his death. He happened to live in Souther Illinois area, near Springfield, just for your information.

It is a terrible infection which leaves the family and most medical professionals completely dumbstruck for solutions.

Ed>>>

If i were that last guy in the original post, I would never complain about any pains in the play pen, if you know what I mean.>>>

Wadjyado HOP, change stories cuz of no responses? I thought the first one was a whole lot better. Wouldn't mention it until you KNOW the guy likes his niece. LOL>>>

Ouch!>>>