“Rose of Jericho”, the local laymen’s term for a potentially deadly flesh-eating skin disease, is sweeping through the ranks of Islamic State militants. The medical term is Leishmaniasis, and it is thought that a combination of bad hygiene and refusal to receive medical treatment are the main catalysts for the rapid spread of this disease. Over 100,000 cases have cropped up in recent months.

The skin disease typically spreads through flies, but the closure of medical facilities during ISIS’s rapid advance has made treating the disease nearly impossible. Leishmaniasis starts as a rash that develops gradually into an open wound.

Doctors Without Borders has been trying to combat the spread of the disease for years now, but eventually they were forced to retreat from the Islamic State’s advance and expansion. Treatment for the disease is usually as simple as administering medication, but if left untreated the flesh-eating parasites can prove deadly.

It seems even Mother Nature herself is working with the rest of the world to defeat the radical militants wreaking havoc around the globe. After defeats in Kobani and other fronts, this newest plague is just one in a long string of setbacks for ISIS, reminding them that their quickly inflated sense of empowerment is rapidly deteriorating.