Life Imitates Horror: Flesh Eating Virus
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Life imitates Horror
Sitting here as the wind outside blows a cold gale, reclining in my slightly hungover state, I have been puzzling of what to bring you for the next “Life Imitates Horror’ feature. When it came to me in a flash of undead inspiration… all things zombie are the rage, zombie flesh is decaying flesh, what type of diseases out there create the same effect on living human beings? Is there such a thing as a ‘Flesh Eating’ virus? Well ladies and gentlemen, I will go to many lengths for my readers, so despite said hangover, I have researched this issue and am happy to report back in the affirmative ‘Flesh Eating’ viruses indeed exist!
There are in fact a number of bacteria that can attack human flesh but today we will be looking at ‘Necrotising Fascitis’. ‘Necrotising Fascitis’ took the lives of approximately 35 injecting drug users in Ireland and the UK in 2002, with the most concentrated number of cases in Glasgow. Forcing the government to issue a health warning.
Symptoms of “Necrotising Fascitis’ occur at the site of an established wound and large blisters form beneath the skin as the bacteria penetrates the lower layers. The victim then experiences flu-like symptoms and diarrhoea can also occur, with victims developing toxic shock syndrome as the disease spreads to the underlying tissues. If caught early the disease can be treated with anti-biotics, however if not the bacteria eats away at the body, creating gaping zombie like wounds!
So beware, next time you are down a dark alley, or cruising past your local crack dealers den, carry some evaporative antiseptic in your pocket, there may be flesh eating bacteria spreading around!
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Life imitates Horror
Life Imitates Horror: Man branches out… literally!
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Life imitates Horror
Post a weekend of horror infused viewing I feel it necessary to drop back into reality… kind of! Whilst indulging one of my guilty viewing pleasures ‘Nip Tuck‘, which stars hot Aussie export Julian McMahon, whose arse I can never see enough of no matter what kind of slapper he is humping. Those of you unfamiliar with the show, in summary its about two debauched, yet not too hard on the eye plastic surgeons who have drunk, snorted and screwed their way through five seasons of medical freak shows, serial killers and porn stars. You can understand why I adore it! It is quiet time in the Harker household when Julian is on for the night, hush now Mumma’s watching her stories!
Good Evening Julian...
The show took an empathic yet horror like turn towards the end of season five by featuring the storyline of a man who was half tree. Yes, you heard me half man half tree. He had a skin disease that presented with warts that looked like bark, extending into tendril like growths on his hands and feet disabling him completely. So, fascinated, I did some investigating into whether this tale was based in fact.
It was… The story was based on the life of an Indonesian man who came to media attention in 2007 via the Discovery Channel. The man had suffered the condition for twenty years, getting his first growth at the age of 15yrs, post falling and cutting his knee. The disorder is believed to be caused due to the man suffering a rare auto-immune deficiency coupled with contraction of the human papilloma virus. Accumulating in these tree like growths on his body, surgeons made efforts to initially remove them, but the virus spread to resulting in his condition (see below).
So what’s the moral of the story kids, always where thongs/flip flops in the shower, especially when showering with trees… Oh and don’t have sex with trees there are 100 types of human papilloma virus, 30 of which are transmitted sexually… I know there’s room here for a ‘Got wood?’ joke but that would be tasteless.
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Life imitates Horror
Life Imitates Horror: Creepy Crawlies!
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Life imitates Horror
Lets start the week off in a gruesome fashion shall we? With another addition to Musings Across a Continuum’s ‘Life Imitates Horror’ collection.
I was reflecting today on the phenomenon of what is known in psychiatry as ‘formication’. This is the delusion often experienced by ravenous methamphetamine users, who may, post administration of the dirty crystals feel the sensation of bugs or insects crawling under their skin. The lovely Ashley Judd who starred in a pretty average horror film entitled ‘Bug‘, experienced such a sensation with mediocre horrendous consequences. This is leading somewhere, stay with me people…
Are there bugs in there?
So I was looking for something related to aforementioned psychiatric phenomena and came across a video on that haven for charming and classic video vagrancy YouTube: ‘Nose Maggots.’ Posted by YouubeeeTube, quoting the sage like tip “Never snort rotting meat” the video demonstrates the reality of what would happen if in fact your delusions of formication where NOT delusions, that you had a sinus cavity full of maggots. WARNING not for those with a weak stomach.
Ms Harker
