Flesh-eating ulcer's spread to new part of Australia worries infectious disease experts

Three cases of disease have emerged south of its usual catchment area in far-north Queensland

The spread of a severe tissue-destroying ulcer once rare in Australia to a new geographic area in Queensland has infectious disease experts worried.

The Buruli ulcer, also known as the Bairnsdale ulcer or Daintree ulcer, is an infection that eventually leads to an eruption of painful skin ulcers that fail to heal. There have been no reported cases in New South Wales, South Australia or Tasmania, with the disease so far confined to the Douglas Shire in far north Queensland between Mossman and just beyond the Daintree River, and to Victoria's Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas.