TORRANCE, Calif. -- With infections from a troublesome bacteria increasing around the country, South Bay scientists have found that the drug-resistant bug also can inflict a rare, potentially fatal flesh-eating disease.

Researchers led by Dr. Loren Miller found an unexpected number of local cases of necrotizing fasciitis, better known as flesh-eating disease, caused by the same variety of bacteria already giving the medical community fits for its power to fend off front-line antibiotics and cause a persistent, but not usually dangerous, skin infection, the Daily Breeze newspaper reported.

At County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance, Miller's team documented 14 cases of flesh-eating disease in the skin wounds of more than 800 patients infected with the antibiotic resistant-bacteria, from January 2003 until April 2004.

None of the 14 patients died, but all had surgery to remove diseased flesh, and 10 spent time in the intensive care unit. Three needed skin grafts or other reconstructive surgery.

When the study started, there had only been two known cases anywhere of flesh-eating disease caused by what is known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, Miller said in remarks reported by the newspaper.

"This antibiotic-resistant staph is now causing not only uncomplicated skin infections, but more serious infections of the skin and soft tissue which previously were unheard of or very rare," said Miller, an investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute and a staff physician at Harbor-UCLA. "Clearly, the staph bacteria has evolved not only to be antibiotic resistant but to be able to cause different forms of disease that it has caused in the past."

The findings make it clear that physicians treating cases of necrotizing fasciitis should treat for MRSA until the cause of the infection is known. The infections at Harbor-UCLA were successfully treated with antibiotics like vancomycin and clindamycin.