Flesh-Eating Bug Kills Girl
A TEN-year-old girl has died after contracting a flesh-eating bug.
It is the sixth case of the Panto-Valentine Leukocidin form of the MRSA superbug outside of hospitals in the last three years.
The PVL toxin attacks white blood cells and can kill within 24 hours of reaching the lungs.
Pneumonia sets in and the bug then eats away at the flesh.
Dr Sarah Harrison, of the Health Protection Agency, said the risk to the public was ‘small’.
‘It is very rare,’ she said.
The girl has not yet been named.
Yesterday her headmaster at Goosewell primary school in Plymouth, John Stephens, said: ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.’
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