A rare and neglected flesh-eating disease finally gets some attention

Mulikat Okanlawon of Nigeria contracted noma when she was a child. The gangrenous infection ate away at the flesh and bone in her face. She survived and has had surgery to repair scars left by the disease. Today she works at the Sokoto Noma Hospital, guiding noma patients on the road to recovery. (Claire Jeantet and Fabrice Caterini / Inediz)

It started out as malaria – or at least that's what her grandparents thought. But there was another devious infection lurking beneath the surface of her skin and inside her mouth.

Mulikat Okanlawon was a child, only 6 or 7 years old, when she contracted noma – a rare gangrenous infection that ate away at the flesh and bone in her face.