2 More Cases of ‘Flesh-Eating’ Strep Bacteria Reported

Two more cases of the so-called “flesh-eating bacteria” have cropped up in Ventura County in the past week, a situation doctors attribute more to coincidence than to an outbreak of the virulent strep infection.

Just hours after a Fillmore woman was rushed into special therapy Friday, an Illinois woman visiting Thousand Oaks was admitted to Los Robles Regional Medical Center suffering from the condition, which physicians call “necrotizing fasciitis.”

And on Tuesday, a Camarillo man already at Los Robles for an infection developed symptoms of the flesh-killing disorder and was transferred to the hospital’s hyperbaric medicine center. There, all three patients are receiving pure oxygen treatments designed to stop the bacteria’s spread.

“Three patients doesn’t make an epidemic or a pandemic,” said J. B. Wilmeth, the physician in charge of the specialized treatment center.

Wilmeth, who treats five to eight such cases each year, said it is not unusual for the symptoms to develop in the heat of the summer. He also noted that all three patients have health conditions making them susceptible to the bacterial disorder, which is caused by streptococcus and other germs.

The bacteria, which might cause a sore throat in one victim, can kill off skin and tissue in others, he said. Typically that happens when there is a breakdown in the system, a cut in the skin or a lapse in the immune or circulatory system.

Suddenly, a small sore will develop into a gaping lesion that can require skin grafts or amputation.

“It really, rarely, if at all, happens in healthy individuals,” said Wilmeth. He said he could not account for the recent case of a Santa Barbara triathlete, Bernard Donner, 35, who nearly lost a leg to the disorder.

But the three Ventura County cases are easier to understand, he said.

The hospital did not release the names of the two latest victims, but Wilmeth said the 49-year-old Camarillo man suffered from diabetes and the 73-year-old Illinois woman had circulatory problems in her legs.

Guadalupe Pulidocq, the 63-year-old Fillmore woman transferred from Santa Paula Memorial Hospital on Friday, also suffers from diabetes.

Pulido has since undergone several rounds of treatment in Los Robles’ hyperbaric chamber, a pressurized cylinder that allows doctors to administer doses of pure oxygen. The oxygen kills the bacteria and strengthens the healthy cells around the sore.

Pulido’s sore, which began as a pimple on her thigh, extended from her groin to her knee when she arrived at the hospital Friday.

“She is doing marvelously and we’re trying to decide when to transfer her back to Santa Paula,” Wilmeth said Tuesday.

The three patients show a different mix of bacteria causing the infections, more evidence that the cases are not related to any sudden outbreak of the strep bacteria in the county, he said.