{"id":529581,"date":"2026-03-09T21:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529581\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:11:10","slug":"sixth-case-of-flesh-eating-buruli-ulcer-appears-on-nsw-south-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529581\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixth case of flesh-eating Buruli ulcer appears on NSW South Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health authorities are urging people on the New South Wales South Coast to stay alert for symptoms after the sixth case of a flesh-eating ulcer was detected in the Batemans Bay-Moruya area.<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains images some readers may find distressing.<\/p>\n

In February this year, the Southern NSW Public Health Unit was notified of a person with the Buruli ulcer infection.<\/p>\n

Tracing indicates that all six cases reported since 2021 have been acquired from the region, with the latest three cases emerging in the last year.<\/p>\n

A flesh-eating infection<\/p>\n

Buruli ulcer is a bacterial infection that releases a toxin that damages skin and soft tissues.<\/p>\n

If left untreated, the ulcer can become larger and lead to skin and muscle damage.<\/p>\n

The disease is most commonly spread to humans by mosquitoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The ulcer normally occurs on parts of your body that you might expect to see mosquito bites, so on your legs, ankles, and arms,” Southern NSW Local Health District Public Health physician Anton Forsyth said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Researchers are investigating ways to mitigate the spread of the infection through mosquitoes. (ABC News: Joanna Crothers)<\/p>\n

New hotspot<\/p>\n

Buruli ulcer is mostly found in Victoria, Far North Queensland and Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

But in 2024, Batemans Bay was identified as a potential new hotspot<\/a>, according to research published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.<\/p>\n

It is hoped a new detection tool developed by scientists at the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne will help flag other potential hotspots before human infections occur.<\/p>\n

Early detection<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Andrew Buultjens said their research focused on Victoria, which saw 426 cases in 2025 and 39 so far this year.<\/p>\n

Dr Buultjens said in 2010 the bacterium found in the Buruli ulcer \u2014 Mycobacterium ulcerans \u2014 was found in possum faeces in the same areas where the disease was occurring in humans.<\/p>\n

“It made us realise that possums play a major role in the ecology of this pathogen,” he said.<\/p>\n

Their recent research, which was published in an American Society for Microbiology<\/a> journal, compared the bacterial DNA found in possum faeces with bacterial DNA from human cases to determine whether infections were locally acquired.<\/p>\n

“By testing their faeces, we can detect where the bacterium is circulating before many human cases appear,” Dr Buultjens said.<\/p>\n

“We’re using genomics, which gives us the ability to fingerprint at a very high forensic resolution, allowing us to link infections to people, back to the environment.<\/p>\n

“You can think of possums as the reservoir of the bacterium, and the mosquitoes as a bridge to carry it from possums to humans.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Buruli ulcer that a Victorian woman contracted in 2018 was the size of a 50 cent coin. (ABC News: James Oaten)<\/p>\n

Ahead of the curve<\/p>\n

The research also indicated the bacteria were present in the area years before human cases appeared.<\/p>\n

“We were able to look back at the ancestries of this bacterium and make some inferences about when the bacterium was initially introduced to those environments,” Dr Buultjens said.<\/p>\n

“Some of the estimates for some newly emerged areas were two to six years prior to when we first started to observe cases from those regions.”<\/p>\n

Dr Buultjens said their research would allow potential hotspots of the infection to be identified.<\/p>\n

“We won’t have to wait until there are large outbreaks to realise that an area is risky for transmission,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s particularly important because it means we can get ahead of the curve and alert local public health authorities to do things like conduct public health messaging campaigns to try and provide alerts to the public to adjust their behaviours.<\/p>\n

“If we can get people trying to do preventative measures before areas become hotspots, that’s a real win.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A case of the flesh-eating bacteria from the Mornington Peninsula. (Supplied: Anthony Fleming)<\/p>\n

Prevention is key<\/p>\n

Dr Forsyth said prevention was the best way to avoid the spread of the infection.<\/p>\n

“People can try to minimise their risk of getting Buruli ulcer by trying to avoid mosquito bites,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Forsyth said this could be done by wearing loose, long-sleeved and light-coloured clothing, and applying mosquito repellent that contains DEET or Picaridin.<\/p>\n

The latest discovery of the ulcer has prompted the local health district to urge people to be alert for signs of the infection.<\/p>\n

“If anyone has an ulcer that’s not healing somewhere on their body, see a doctor and get it checked out,” Dr Forsyth said.<\/p>\n

“It is curable with antibiotics, but it needs different antibiotics than what would normally be given for an ulcer.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health authorities are urging people on the New South Wales South Coast to stay alert for symptoms after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,129247,263135,263134,263133,137],"class_list":["post-529581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-batemans-bay","tag-buruli","tag-dr-anton-forsyth","tag-flesh-eating-ulcer","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}