Flesh-eating case feared on Maui

Officials should know today whether a 61-year-old landscaper has been hospitalized with necrotizing fasciitis, the island's first case this year

WAILUKU » State health officials are investigating whether a man admitted to Maui Memorial Medical Center has contracted a flesh-eating disease.

Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said officials should know by today whether the man has necrotizing fasciitis.

Okubo said if the man has the infection, it will be the first incident on Maui this year.

Ron Lemay, 61, was in the critical-care unit at Maui Memorial Medical Center after being admitted Tuesday for a streptococcus infection, said his brother John.

He had not been able to talk with his brother, but did speak to him about a week ago. "He was fine," John Lemay said.

He said he did not know how his brother got the infection.

Ron Lemay, who had moved from Massachusetts, was working on the Valley Isle as a landscaper, John said.

Okubo said the infection was from blood group A streptococcus and one of the subtypes of necrotizing fasciitis.

Flesh-eating cases were last reported on Maui in 2002, when three people died of the infection and three others survived within a three-month period. Those figures were within the statistical probabilities of one to five infections per 100,000 population, according to an infectious-disease specialist at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

One of the main symptoms is feeling more pain than expected around a cut or bruise, with a high fever.

Health officials say people should also look out for a painful infection around the cut that spreads very quickly.

Necrotizing fasciitis develops from a common infection of Group A streptococcus, a bacterium found in the throat and on the skin.

While most Group A streptococcus cases end up in relatively mild illnesses such as strep throat, they sometimes cause life-threatening diseases such as necrotizing fasciitis.

Although there is no vaccine to prevent such streptococcal infections, health experts say people can reduce their risk with immediate proper cleaning of all wounds, no matter how small, and keeping them clean and dry throughout the healing process.