Hiker Barely Survives Infection From Flesh-Eating Bacteria

A Florida man is recovering from a month-long battle with a typically ho-hum bacterium that very nearly killed him. 

Health officials say he contracted group A strep, the strep throat strain that can live in our throats and noses and the environment around us, but which is capable of advancing all the way to flesh-eating bacteria and result in death when it infects an open wound and isn't treated. 

Wayne Atkins, 32, had visited family in New England in early June for a wedding and hiked Mount Garfield, where he got blisters on his feet, before he began to show signs of severe illness, reports WMUR. Still, it's unclear whether he was infected while hiking, or in a pool back in Florida, or simply from his own body.

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