Cases of flesh-eating invasive strep A bacteria surge in Australian children

Medical journal reports alarming rise in cases over two years with some patients experiencing toxic shock, amputation and flesh-eating, necrotising disease

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It took just two days for one-year-old Jordan Sutherland to go from experiencing clinginess and a slight temperature to being in intensive care after surgery to remove flesh-eating bacteria from his neck, which had “swollen from ear to ear”, his mother recalls.

Jordan would not leave the Royal Children’s hospital in Melbourne for almost five weeks, after an infection with the common strep A bacteria developed into a disease known as “invasive strep A”.

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