Flesh-eating ulcer spreads to new regions, prompting Victoria health alert

Buruli ulcer has spread to town on Great Ocean Road and a suburb of Geelong

The spread to a new geographic area of Victoria of a severe tissue-destroying ulcer once rare in Australia has caused health authorities to issue a state-wide health alert to doctors.

The Buruli ulcer occurs in very specific areas of Victoria and Queensland, and those who don't enter an endemic area don't get the disease. In Victoria, transmission of the disease has until now been confined to the Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas.