7 Healthcast: Flesh-eating bacteria

Symptoms can include pain, redness, fever, nausea and vomiting.

Emergency doctor Richard Zane of Brigham and Women's Hospital says that the exact cause of the infection is not always clear, but surgery or trauma can increase your risk as can other things.

"The vast majority of people who get this have underlying problems like diabetes, obesity, steroids," Dr. Zane said.

Treatment is aggressive because this infection progresses quickly, in addition to antibiotics; surgery is usually required to cut away any infected tissue.

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