Flesh-eating genital disease can kill you in hours as docs warn UK cases on rise (2025)

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust issued a report that said there had been a worrying rise in cases of Necrotising fasciitis - which can kill within one or two days

A terrifying flesh-eating genital disease that can kill you in hours is on the rise in the UK, warn doctors.

Top Brit medics are sounding the alarm following a spike in Necrotising fasciitis, dubbed the "flesh-eating disease". This nasty bug is rare, but a lethal infection can kick off anywhere there's a break in the skin or tissue when a wound gets infected, even the nether regions.

Health chiefs from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust penned in BMJ Case Reports: "Necrotising fasciitis is an uncommon and rapidly progressive surgical emergency." They're urging fellow gynaecologists to be aware after a concerning uptick in cases at their hospital.

This gruesome condition can rear its ugly head following any breach in the skin - be it from surgery, a minor nick, scratch, or even an insect bite.

If you have diabetes or your immune system is weakened, you're more at risk for necrotising fasciitis, reports the Mirror.

Symptoms can occur in hours or creep up over several days, and if those bacteria invade your bloodstream, it could lead to sepsis.

Initially, you might feel a severe pain or numbness close to a cut or wound – the agony can be way out of proportion to what you'd expect. Keep an eye out for puffy skin near the trouble spot or signs like a raging fever, severe headache, and feeling tired.

Other symptoms including sickness and diarrhoea, confusion, and black, purple, or grey blotches and blisters cropping up on your skin (trickier to spot on darker skin tones) might point towards something sinister.

These signs are akin to run-of-the-mill skin infections like cellulitis.

Necrotising fasciitis gets worse at an alarming rate and can be fatal if it's not dealt with quickly.

A trip to the hospital is a must, where they'll likely hit you with a cocktail of antibiotics or haul you off for surgery to remove the affected areas.

But even after you've come through it, your body might not look or work the same, and sometimes they've got to amputate limbs that are past saving.

Bill Sullivan, a professor of microbiology and immunology over at Indiana University, told Live Science: "Necrotising fasciitis can occur anywhere skin or tissue is breached, including genitalia. It's an extremely aggressive infection that can advance to a life-threatening situation in 24-48 hours.

"After these bacteria get into the skin, they release potent toxins that lead to rapid tissue destruction, liquefying muscle, nerves, and blood vessels."

Medics have penned a chilling report about three women who were struck down by a gruesome infection on their nether regions.

They revealed: "Two of our patients presented to emergency with vulval necrotising fasciitis, while the third developed it as a complication of postoperative wound infection.

"All patients underwent extensive surgical debridement and required a multidisciplinary approach from gynaecologists, surgeons, the intensive care team and the tissue viability team."

Dr Sullivan warned: "Vaginal necrotising fasciitis could be considered more dangerous in the sense that it might be more difficult to diagnose in time."

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