Toddler survives ordeal with flesh-eating bug
A mother in Melbourne has spoken out about the terrifying ordeal her family went through after her daughter almost lost her leg to a flesh-eating infection caused by Strep A.
At just 11 months old, Eden contracted the bug after a bout of severe colds that affected her for weeks.
On the night she was rushed to hospital with a fever, it was discovered she had Strep A that was affecting her leg.
“We were obviously very scared because it was a very dangerous bug that got into her system quickly,” Eden’s mother Tania O’Meara told 7NEWS.
Luckily the doctors were able to save her leg, but Eden was left scarring on her right calf.
“It was a very precarious point in her life,” O’Meara said.
The need for a vaccine
Dr Josh Osowicki from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute said Strep A is a “high-priority” bug for vaccine development.
As part of their efforts, researchers at the institute are deliberately infecting healthy volunteers with the bacteria to trial different vaccines and treatments.
“We’ve kept the participants in an inpatient environment and we had really close clinical support and we’ve watched them really closely,” Dr Osowicki said.
“We hope the vaccine can stop other children going through what Eden went through,” O’Meara said.
“Strep A causes a lot of different disease, from a strep throat or a mild skin infection to really severe and dangerous infections,” Dr Osowicki said.
The infection kills more than 500,000 people globally every year, with young children, the elderly, and pregnant women especially at risk.
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