In Australia, an epidemic of a certain skin disease is growing, during which ulcers appear in patients, rapidly eating away at the flesh. Moreover, scientists cannot yet say how it began and even how the disease spreads.
The disease is called Buruli's ulcer. Patients first develop a small red swelling similar to an insect bite. If left untreated, the bump becomes larger and in a couple of weeks can lead to serious destruction of the skin and soft tissues.
According to the World Health Organization, the disease is caused by a bacterium belonging to the same family as the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and leprosy. It usually affects a person's arms or legs.
Compared to another, flesh-eating disease like necrotizing fasciitis, this one is not so aggressive, but in one patient it managed to completely eat away one limb.
Usually something like this is found in central or western Africa, but quite rarely. In the Australian state of Victoria, the disease unexpectedly took on the scale of an epidemic, and between 2016 and 2017, the number of cases of it increased by 50%.
She is being treated for quite a long time, the last patient, a 13-year-old girl from the town of Taiab in Victoria, took several operations and several months of antibiotics to get rid of her.
Scientists do not yet know how Buruli's ulcer is transferred, or where the bacterium lives in its natural environment, so they cannot take any preventive measures now, the World Health Organization says. Local doctors are working on the hypothesis that the ulcer can be carried by mosquitoes or possums.