Flesh-eating bacteria terrorizes Honduras

By Diego Veiga

On the last days, Honduras have been facing an epidemic due to the presence of the strong bacteria (Fascitis Necrotizante) popularly known as "come carne" or flesh eating in Spanish.

Six cases of this bacteria were reported so far and all of them were diagnosed in La Esperanza region, in the Honduran countryside.

All the six patients got the bacteria through infections in the genital area and most of them suffer from diabetes, which helps to aggravate the situation.

This violent bacteria brings symptoms such as: high fever, strong pains, the redness of the affected area. Other than that, the bacteria is also in charge of destroying the skin on the infected region - in some situations, it destroys one centimetre of the skin per hour - so, because of that, the person infected needs to have urgent aid during the first 12 hours to avoid dying from it.

Ten years ago, another Central American country, Costa Rica, took on the same epidemic, resulting in many infected Costa Ricans.