
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994                   TAG: 9406060031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NORWALK, CONN.                                LENGTH: Short

DEADLY FORMS OF BACTERIA FOUND IN U.S.

Two people have been hospitalized with rare and deadly strains of a bacteria that kills flesh or muscle tissue.

The patients, a man and a woman in their 30s, were admitted to Norwalk Hospital at separate times last week with virulent forms of the streptococcus bacteria, hospital spokesman Bruce Hutchinson said.

One has the form of the disease that kills flesh, called necrotizing fasciitis. The other has pyomyositis, which kills muscle tissue. The man was in critical condition Sunday and the woman was satisfactory.

Hutchinson said there is no known link between the two.

Last month, Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service reported that 15 people had been diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis this year and that 11 of them died.

- Associated Press

by CNB