GREENVILLE, N.C. — A woman in Pitt County has been diagnosed with Flesh Eating Disease.

Medical rules are keeping the hospital from releasing her condition.

The infection races its way through tissue that surrounds muscles. It destroys it and in extreme cases can cause death within 12 to 24 hours.

Symptoms include fever, and red, painful swelling.

It may sound unusual, but Flesh Eating Disease is not that rare in our state. According to the state health department, there have been 85 cases this year.

Eight people have died. Seven died last year, out of 106 cases.

Of 122 cases in North Carolina in 2002, 11-people died.