Mysterious flesh-eating bacteria is raging in Australia, possibly spread by mosquitos

In the last year, cases of a ghastly but mysterious flesh-eating bacterial infection have more than doubled in Victoria, Australia, raising alarm among health experts.

There were 239 cases of the flesh-eating infections in the past 12 months, according to figures (PDF) released this week by health authorities. In 2016, there were only 102 reported cases, while 2015 and 2014 tallied just 58 and 47. And the rate of new infections is currently skyrocketing: in the past few months, case counts hit nine per week, according to Australia’s Nine News. The number of severe cases has also doubled.

While the rises alone are enough to worry health experts, the fact that virtually nothing is known about the cause of the infection has some dismayed.

“I’m at the forefront as a clinician trying to treat patients and getting more and more overwhelmed but also distressed at the fact that we are doing nothing to try and prevent people getting it in the first place,” Dr. Daniel O’Brien, of Royal Melbourne and Geelong hospitals, told Nine News.

The infections are caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, a slow-growing bacterium that causes gaping, palm-sized ulcers. Sometimes called Buruli ulcers, the lesions seem to dissolve skin and gnaw away at tissue. The bacteria are known to lurk around Victoria, but experts don’t know where it lives or how it spreads.

“There are theories about transmission via mosquitos, theories about it being in the soil and getting through wounds, theories about whether some animals are involved, in that we know that some possums can be affected by it,” O’Brien said. “But we don’t actually know where it lives, why it’s there, and how it gets spread to humans. How can we possibility halt an epidemic when we don’t have that basic information?”

[link to arstechnica.com (secure)]

Last Edited by Face Palmer on 09/21/2017 02:37 AM