Take Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who had to pull out of an Aussie festival because he'd been diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease.

Rabies is an infectious disease of the central nervous system caused by a virus and spread chiefly by domestic dogs and wild flesh-eating animals.

Scientists have shown how flesh-eating parasites responsible for the disfiguring tropical disease leishmaniasis dupe the immune system.