Normally, between 10 and 15 people are infected each year by the flesh-eating bacteria in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean; already four cases have been listed since the beginning of March alone.
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Two people stricken with the disease in the past three months have agreed to testify.
Isabelle Grégoire had a narrow escape on February 22.
“Around 7 a.m. I felt a pain in my finger on a small cut which was almost healed. It really pinched. I disinfected and put on a “plaster”. By the time I finished working, the small rolls of my cut were like swollen, it was very fast,” she recalled.
The next day, she went to the emergency room. Within five minutes, Ms. Grégoire was taken care of and the verdict was in: it was flesh-eating bacteria.
“The bacteria had time to get to the tendon, so the bacteria wreaked havoc pretty quickly. The same day that I was there, there is another who had an operation and it went to his lymph. Two in the same day, that made three in the same week that they operated. Since the month of January, they have operated on me on February 23rd. There had been 5 cases. There is a doctor who told me that he had been there for regarding ten years and that he had not seen one, ”she admitted.
Four cases in 28 days
Impossible to know from the health authorities how many people have been infected in the region since the beginning of the year. All that is known is that four cases have been identified this month, while on average there are 10 to 15 for a whole year.
“You really have to be careful. A wound that reddens, becomes hot or hurts should be consulted immediately,” warned Ms. Grégoire.
Carol-Ann Doucet knows something regarding it, she also contracted the same bacteria two months ago.
“From the time I started to feel a lump in my sore to go until my hand stopped moving, it took regarding 10 hours. It’s better to wait a little too long in the emergency room for nothing than to lose a limb because I came close to losing a limb, she said. I had a crack on my hand. I realized that I had a bump probably of pus inside.
She underwent three operations in 11 days.
“I was lucky when I woke up they were able to save my hand and arm. I didn’t need an amputation, but it was a matter of hours and my doctor said minutes,” she explained.
She also heard that she wasn’t the only one to have had this diagnosis recently.
«[Les médecins] told me that at the moment there was really a big wave. I spoke once more to people who work in the health sector and there are still cases at the moment at the same hospital where I was. My clientele at the salon, I have already heard regarding three cases in the last year,” said Ms. Doucet.
Health authorities assure that the situation is not abnormal for the moment and that if necessary, public health can take action quickly.
