A rare flesh-eating STD (sexually transmitted disease) has been reported in England. An unnamed female patient, who lives in Southport has been diagnosed with donovanosis within the last 12 months.

Donovanosis is an STD that causes flesh-eating ulcers on a patient’s genitalia; it has now popped up in England. Donovanosis is also spread by coming into contact with a patient’s infected ulcer and it is typically seen in India, New Guinea, parts of the Caribbean, central Australia, and southern Africa, according to Fox News.  The disease is painless, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but it causes horrifying and progressive ulcerative lesions on the genitals or perineum, which can be prone to heavy bleeding.  Is it painless as the CDC said?

It may sound like something straight out of a zombie horror movie, but this is actually a very real disease, warned researchers according to ABC 7 News.

Antibiotic treatment may be able to stop the progression of the lesions, but patients are still at risk of relapse for 6-18 months post-treatment. According to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), there have been no prior cases reported in the U.K, that anyone is aware of…yet.  But this young woman (aged 15-25) who contracted the Donovanosis disease got it from somewhere…

An update on the infected patient was not provided, nor was it clear if any sexual partners she had encountered were also infected. The woman’s case only came to light through a Freedom of Information request submitted by chemist-4-u.com, the Lancashire Evening Post reported. The website submitted the request as part of its “The Great British STI Taboo” investigation, which reported that 69 percent of the 1,000 British adults polled had never been tested for an STD.

A pharmacist with chemist-4-u.com told the news outlet that any delay in treatment “could cause the flesh around the genitals to literally rot away.”