scary story

[Guest guest]

DUNN, N.C. -- North Carolina health officials are investigating the

death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three

days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while

working at a nursing home. Nursing assistant Sharron Bishop, 44, died

Feb. 27. A doctor said a rare flesh-eating bacteria may have entered

her body through a thumb injury and she turned from healthy to

fatally ill.

The culprit was a rare invasive form of group A streptococcal

bacteria, said Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for the state Department

of Health and Human Services. The noninvasive form is widespread and

is commonly known for causing strep throat, she said.

" It's kind of like getting bitten by a shark or struck by lightning, "

she said. " It's not something that spreads to the community. "

North Carolina gets about 125 reports of the invasive form of strep

annually, and about 10 percent are fatal, she said.

Bishop said doctors at UNC Hospitals, where Sharron Bishop

died, have told him it's impossible to know how his wife contracted

the rare infection. " The UNC doctors said she could have picked it up

at the gas station, at the grocery store, anywhere, " he said. " We

will never know. "

Sharon Bishop complained on Feb. 24 about a swollen thumb. She had

jammed it at work and worried that she had dislocated it.

Bishop took her to Betsy Regional Hospital, where doctors

gave her pain medication and sent her home.

The swelling got worse. By the morning of Feb. 27, her arm was twice

as large as normal and looked like it would burst, Bishop said.

Fluid leaked from her elbow and wrist. She complained of terrific

pain.

Dunn physician Abraham Oudeh diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis, an

infection that destroys tissue.

Doctors at UNC Hospitals that evening tried to stop the spreading

infection by amputating her arm at the clavicle and removing all the

muscle and tissue around her left breast, torso and thigh in a futile

effort to save her life.

Harnett County Health Director Rouse Jr. said Bishop's was one

of two confirmed cases of the bacteria that his office investigated

in recent days after being notified by state health authorities. He

said he believed the other woman, whom he also did not identify, knew

Bishop.

Rouse said it would be impossible to determine whether they passed

the bacteria to each other. Rouse said the other woman is recovering.

[Guest guest]

Is it true that moist dirt (such as in crawlspaces under damp, moldy

buildings) tend to harbor streptococcus bacteria?

If so, does anyone have any references?