2nd Person in a Week Dies From ‘Flesh-Eating Bacteria’ : Disease: The South Bay man’s death follows that of Ventura County college Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin.

A South Bay man whose body was attacked by a rare “flesh-eating bacteria” Thursday became the second person to die from the ailment in Southern California in less than a week.

The man, who arrived at Torrance Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, died of a fast-acting strain of Group A streptococcus infection known as “necrotizing fasciitis,” hospital spokeswoman Laurie Lundberg said.

The virulent infection captured public attention this year after it was linked to a series of deaths in Great Britain. However, health officials have known of the condition for at least a century and can treat it with antibiotics.

Health officials--who only recently began officially tracking the disease--have estimated that it claims between 150 and 300 lives a year nationwide.

California’s death toll, they said, runs between 12 and 42 lives a year. Los Angeles County reported four fatalities from the infection during the first six months of this year.

Officials at Torrance Memorial declined to release the victim’s name or any personal information.

“The family has requested that confidentiality be kept,” Lundberg said, adding that no coroner’s investigation is expected because the man died of natural causes.

Earlier this week, the infection claimed the life of Thomas G. Lakin, chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District. Lakin, 50, died Sunday at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks after a 24-hour medical battle to save his life.

Hospital officials said he was the sixth patient this year to be treated for necrotizing fasciitis at Los Robles, but the first at the hospital to die of the infection.

Lakin had complained to colleagues about a severe sore throat on Nov. 23. Friends said he waited until Friday to go to the Los Robles emergency room, where he was treated for symptoms of strep throat and released.

On Saturday, friends said, Lakin returned to the emergency room, saying that he had a sharp pain in his leg and that the tenderness in his throat had not improved. He was admitted to the hospital and, within hours, the disease had spread and doctors were forced to amputate his leg, the friends said.