The number of deaths has doubled, the level of danger is increasing, but the authorities do not even know how it spreads.
Mornington Peninsula beach, hotbed of a mysterious disease.
In the past year, infections with a terrible and mysterious carnivorous bacterial infection more than doubled in Victoria, Australia, raising alarm among health experts.
There have already been 239 cases of infection with carnivorous bacteria, according to figures released this week by health authorities. In 2016, only 102 cases were registered, while in 2015 and 2014. there were only 58 and 47. Currently, the rate of the mysterious disease is rapidly increasing: in the past few months the number of cases has reached nine per week, according to Nine News Australia. The number of severe cases has also doubled.
Although the mere fact that there is such a sharp increase in diseases is already causing concern to health experts, the fact that almost nothing is known about the causes of infection is especially alarming.
“I’m at the forefront as a doctor trying to treat patients, but there are more and more patients, and I’m saddened that we’re not doing anything to try and warn people,” said Dr. Daniel O'Brien, Royal Melbourne hospitals, according to Nine News.
Mysterious bacteria
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Infections are caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, a slowly growing bacterium that causes vomiting and palm-sized ulcers. Sometimes called Buruli ulcers, the lesions dissolve the skin and eat away at the tissue. The bacteria are known to lurk around Victoria, but experts do not know where it lives or how it spreads.
"There are theories about mosquito transmission, theories that they are in the soil and penetrate wounds, theories that some animals are involved in its spread," O'Brien said. “But we don't really know what it is, where these bacteria live, where they came from and how they spread to humans. How can we stop the epidemic when we don't have this basic information?"
The bacterium was first discovered in Australia in 1948, but the ulcers got their name from Buruli County (now called Nakasongola) in Uganda, where researchers reported a large number of ulcers in the 1960s.
The bacterium is now known to be present in no fewer than 33 countries, and the World Health Organization considers it "largely a problem for the poor in remote rural areas." It causes several thousand cases of disease worldwide every year, most of them in children under 15 years of age.
Antibiotics are usually effective in treating the lesions. But timely treatment is critical to reducing skin loss and tissue damage. Victims often need surgery to cleanse dead flesh and heal wounds.
Zombie limbs
There is currently no prevention or vaccination strategy. Despite years of knowledge about these bacteria, researchers are still at a dead end. The study, published only in April this year, added weight to the idea that bacteria are somehow linked to water sources and to disasters like floods.
A study last month showed where ulcers appear in humans. A study of 579 patients found that they tend to appear commonly on the arms and legs. The researchers, led by O'Brien, concluded:
"We suggest that infection by insect biting, rather than direct contact with a contaminated environment, best explains the spread of lesions we have observed."
A likely source of confusion for researchers is the slow process of M. ulcerans infection. It is unclear how quickly symptoms appear after a person is infected, but authorities estimate it to occur anywhere in the range of four weeks to nine months. Such a long time frame makes it difficult to accurately determine when and where the infection occurred, let alone how to prevent it.
“For me, this is the most pressing health issue that needs to be addressed,” O'Brien said. "I think our government needs to invest significant sums in trying to stop this."
This week, a 13-year-old girl from Chibab, Victoria, launched an online petition to urge Health Secretary Greg Hunt to provide more funding for research into the disease. In April, the girl was struck by Buruli's peptic ulcer on her knee and is still recovering. It took her three surgeries to cleanse the rotting flesh.
“It still doesn't look as great as it used to,” she said. "We call it the zombie foot."