A three-year-old girl\u2019s tragic death from a rare infection commonly found in farm animals has triggered warnings from health authorities over the importance of hand hygiene.<\/p>\n
The girl died in a Melbourne hospital over the weekend after six weeks in intensive care battling rare complications of a bacterial infection known as Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC).<\/p>\n
The rare but serious infection releases toxins into the body, inflaming blood vessels and causing clots which can produce gastro symptoms and damage the kidneys and other organs.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sassi\u2019s family said they had \u201cbeen living a nightmare\u201d after the infection led to Haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, or HUS, which left the child with kidney failure and a brain injury.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve lost our darling girl,\u201d the Salter family wrote in a GoFundMe post.<\/p>\n \u201cSassi was strong. Surprising many at each corner. She was courageous and a fighter. She fought so hard. We all fought so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Her parents believe she might have contracted STEC during a trip to a petting zoo in July where she held, rode and petted farm animals, which commonly carry the infection in their guts.<\/p>\n A second child with a confirmed case of HUS became sick after visiting the petting farm in May.<\/p>\n Despite a thorough public health investigation, Victoria\u2019s Deputy Chief Health Officer Clare Looker said officials had been unable to definitively link the farm to the infections.<\/p>\n The petting zoo in question was fully compliant with public health measures, which includes ensuring appropriate handwashing facilities and hand hygiene signage, Dr Looker said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know this bacteria exists in many farm animals, so I don\u2019t think that shutting a single farm, that is taking all the right pubic health protective measures, wouldn\u2019t stop the risk for children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHand washing after touching animals, using the bathroom and preparing or eating food is the best way to protect yourself from STEC infection.\u201d<\/p>\n The two children are the only known cases of HUS in Victoria in 2026, while STEC has been confirmed in 179 across the state.<\/p>\n Across Australia, about 1000 STEC infections are reported in Australia each year, of which a very small number of these people develop HUS, the Australian Centre for Disease Control says.<\/p>\n STEC is transmissible through contact with animals and their faeces and contaminated foods and environments.<\/p>\n Children under five years of age, immunocompromised people and those aged over 65 are at greatest risk of developing the infection.<\/p>\n People should avoid consuming undercooked meat, unpasteurised milk or juice, unwashed salad ingredients and untreated water, which can all carry STEC, Dr Looker said.<\/p>\n Symptoms of the infection include bloody diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, fever, dehydration, seizures, jaundice and hypertension.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately most people do fully recover from STEC and even if they go on to develop HUS, most commonly people make a full recovery,\u201d Dr Looker said.<\/p>\n More than $50,000 has been raised to support the Salter family, which they said \u201callowed us to spend every second at Sassi\u2019s side\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no official treatments as such for HUS. The treatment is about supporting the body and time,\u201d they wrote.\u201cPlease donate blood if you\u2019re in a position to do so. This is a lifeline for many critically ill people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-year-old girl\u2019s tragic death from a rare infection commonly found in farm animals has triggered warnings from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,260,68],"class_list":["post-87073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-australia","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}