Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours
Some collection centres are temporarily closed due to extreme weather.
Search current opening hours

We accept all test referrals. Find a Collection Centre

Home Newsroom News

Fighting flesh-eating bacterial disease

Media Resources & Contact
29th May, 2023

May 31 is Necrotizing Fasciitis (NF) Awareness Day when we share information on the treatment and prevention of the most common flesh-eating disease in the world today.

NF is a bac­te­r­i­al infec­tion that can cause the death of skin, mus­cle and tis­sue, and organ fail­ure if left uncon­trolled. Treat­ment often involves surgery, antibi­otics, and sup­port­ive care to pre­vent fur­ther infec­tion and dam­age. Life-sav­ing limb ampu­ta­tion is often required.

It’s been around a long time

Hip­pocrates, the father of med­i­cine, first described NF more than 2000 years ago, report­ing peo­ple devel­op­ing skin infec­tions that caused bones, flesh and sinew to ‘fall off from the body’ result­ing in many deaths.

Sur­geons in the Amer­i­can Civ­il War called it ‘hos­pi­tal gangrene’.

Today, NF is still affect­ing peo­ple includ­ing 2001 Nobel Prize-win­ning Physi­cist Pro­fes­sor Eric Cor­nell, who lost an arm and shoul­der to the dis­ease. The Unit­ed States Cen­tre for Dis­ease Con­trol says up to 1 in 5 peo­ple who devel­op NF will die.

Painting of a Civil War soldier with gangrene
By Nation­al Muse­um of Health and Med­i­cine – Mil­ton Wallen, CWMI098C, Nation­al Muse­um of Health and Medicine

How do you get NF?

It’s most­ly caused by bac­te­ria enter­ing the body through a break in the skin from cuts and scrapes, burns, bites, sur­gi­cal wounds and punc­tures includ­ing from IV drug use.

The most com­mon bac­te­ria involved in NF is A Strep­to­coc­cus, also known as Group A strep or GAS. It lives on our skin and in our throats with­out caus­ing harm, but in open wounds it can fes­ter, releas­ing tox­ins that cause sep­tic shock, mak­ing blood pres­sure drop, which can cause body tis­sue to die.

While NF infec­tions are incred­i­bly rare in healthy peo­ple, cas­es are on the rise in the Unit­ed King­dom, the Unit­ed States and Europe. NSW Health Pathology’s Insti­tute for Clin­i­cal Pathol­o­gy and Med­ical Research (ICPMR) advis­es there is evi­dence of increas­ing GAS cas­es in NSW and Vic­to­ria as well.

A microscopic image of strep bacteria
A Strep­to­coc­cus – UK Health Secu­ri­ty Agency

How do you avoid NF?

Those who devel­op it tend to have oth­er health prob­lems that low­er their immu­ni­ty such as can­cer, dia­betes and kid­ney disease.

There are no vac­cines to pre­vent GAS infec­tion but you can do sim­ple things to pro­tect your­self such as:

  • Wash your hands and use hand sani­tis­er to kill bac­te­ria and pre­vent transmission
  • Clean cuts and wounds with water and soap and ban­dage open wounds until healed
  • See a doc­tor for more seri­ous wounds and punctures
  • If you have open wounds, avoid rivers, lakes and swim­ming pools where bac­te­ria live
  • Treat fun­gal infec­tions, because fun­gi may also cause NF

How we’re helping

NF is typ­i­cal­ly diag­nosed through a com­bi­na­tion of clin­i­cal eval­u­a­tion, CT scans and MRI, and lab­o­ra­to­ry testing.

Our lab­o­ra­to­ries per­form rapid cul­ture and sen­si­tiv­i­ty test­ing to iden­ti­fy which bac­te­ria is at work and advise treat­ing doc­tors which antibi­otics to use to kill them. We test blood and wound cul­tures as well as tis­sue biop­sies. Oth­er tests per­formed to sup­port NF diag­no­sis are com­plete blood counts, C‑reactive pro­tein to gauge inflam­ma­tion and coag­u­la­tion pro­files for very ill patients.

Scientist uses safety equipment when handling potentially deadly bacteria
Our NSWHP-ICPMR West­mead experts take care­ful pre­cau­tions when work­ing with poten­tial­ly dead­ly bacteria

That’s not all we do

Our work also extends to pub­lic health pro­tec­tion and research.

We use whole genome sequenc­ing to study and under­stand NF-caus­ing bac­te­ria. It can show how they work, if they are relat­ed and how they can be treat­ed. It’s like look­ing at a unique blue­print of the bac­te­ria that helps us learn more about them.

Giv­en increas­ing rates of antimi­cro­bial resis­tance there is an urgent need for the devel­op­ment of new antimi­cro­bials and con­tin­u­al review of antibi­ot­ic treat­ment guide­lines to ensure they remain effec­tive. Our NSWHP-ICPMR Micro­bi­ol­o­gy Depart­ment tests nov­el antibi­otics against a range of bac­te­ria includ­ing drug com­bi­na­tions and shares data nationally.

NF is not the only flesh-eat­ing dis­ease we manage

The world-class exper­tise of our clin­i­cal and sci­en­tif­ic staff means we’re often the first port of call for inves­ti­ga­tion of oth­er high­ly uncom­mon flesh-eat­ing diseases.

These include those caused by M. ulcer­ans (buruli ulcer, some­times called ‘Bairns­dale ulcer’, because it was first detect­ed in that region of Vic­to­ria almost 100 years ago) and M. lep­rae (lep­rosy). Oth­ers are oth­er trau­mat­ic mucormy­co­sis and oth­er inva­sive fun­gal infec­tions, and cuta­neous nocardiosis.

Thank­ful­ly, our experts have knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to recog­nise, diag­nose and treat these infections.

MEET A CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGIST

Pic of Dr Kerri Basile MBBS, FRCPA, FRACP is a Staff Specialist at ICPMR Westmead, NSWHP West
Dr Ker­ri Basile MBBS, FRCPA, FRACP is a Staff Spe­cial­ist at ICPMR West­mead, NSWHP West

Dr Ker­ri Basile, what is your role?

I work as a clin­i­cal micro­bi­ol­o­gist and infec­tious dis­eases physi­cian at NSWHP-ICPMR. 

What are your qualifications?

I under­took a med­ical degree (MBBS) and then com­plet­ed spe­cial­ist train­ing in Micro­bi­ol­o­gy (FRCPA) and Infec­tious Dis­eases (FRACP) and am cur­rent­ly under­tak­ing a PhD. 

Why do you like it?

I enjoy my work as it is var­ied, with con­stant oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn and be chal­lenged. Work­ing in the lab­o­ra­to­ry is extreme­ly reward­ing as advances in diag­nos­tics such as whole genome sequenc­ing have the poten­tial to improve the health of indi­vid­ual patients as well as the wider com­mu­ni­ty. Whole genome sequenc­ing is being increas­ing­ly utilised to mon­i­tor pathogens of pub­lic health sig­nif­i­cance (such as SARS-CoV­‑2 dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic). 

How do you keep safe while han­dling these microbes?

Safe­ty is a top pri­or­i­ty in the lab­o­ra­to­ry. We deal with thou­sands of sam­ples each day, and many unknowns, so until we know the iden­ti­ty of the bug we per­form all our cul­ture work up in a Bio­log­i­cal Safe­ty Cabinet.

For high­ly infec­tious pathogens we may work in a lab with cus­tom air­flow and pres­sure prop­er­ties as a fur­ther precaution.

We wear per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment includ­ing gowns, gloves, gog­gles and/or face masks. Hand wash­ing is essen­tial. We’re immu­nised against many vac­cine-pre­ventable infections.

Has your expe­ri­ence with these bugs changed your habits?

Yes, I’m very care­ful with wounds. But this doesn’t stop me enjoy­ing trav­el and the outdoors. 

Make sure you get the tetanus boost­er before you set out and be aware of injuries 

Resources, ref­er­ences and fur­ther reading

Topics

Skip to content