Chance Flowers: Perth boy’s battle with Strep A prompts push from The Kids Research Institute for vaccine

Perth researchers are pioneering a world-first study in the battle against a deadly bacterium.

Strep A kills half a million people a year globally, but can often be hard to diagnose.

A study using tonsils collected from surgery at Perth Children’s Hospital will help scientists learn more about it as they work to develop a vaccine.

Seven-year-old Chance Flowers is no stranger to tonsillitis. Three years ago, it quickly spiralled into something more sinister.

“It started off as a fever and vomiting that came on very suddenly . . . (but) in the 15 minutes from leaving school and getting to work, he was limp in the back of the car,” mum Jodie Flowers said.

Chance’s little body was in the grip a deadly infection. Sepsis had settled into his joints.

“It was just like painful, painful, painful,” he said.

Ms Flowers said it was missed by two separate doctors.

“His symptoms were really frightening at that point . . . he couldn’t stand, he couldn’t walk, he was in excruciating pain,” she said.

“They were saying it’s normal — it’s just a virus, but he was extremely unwell.”

His life-threatening symptoms were far from normal, they were being caused by invasive Strep A.

The little boy spent two weeks at Perth Children’s Hospital and needed surgery.

“Then he spent the rest of the year learning how to walk again,” Ms Flowers said.

Jua Iwasaki is part of a team at The Kids Research Institute Australia hoping to stop the sinister bacterial infection in its tracks.

“Strep A is a really common childhood infection,” Dr Iwasaki said.

“It usually causes more mild symptoms . . . but in some children it can lead to these severe illnesses.”

When severe, these infections can cause death in a matter of days, sometimes hours.

It was the case for seven-year-old Morley girl, Aishwarya Aswath in 2021.

Half a million people die from Strep A infections around the world each year. There’s no vaccine.

But researchers at The Kids Institute are studying real tonsils from surgeries to understand how the bacterium binds to them.

“We’re growing them in the lab to be able to test the immune response to the bacteria Strep A and the vaccines we’re currently developing,” Dr Iwasaki said.

Researchers hope this work won’t just lead to a vaccine but to a version tailored for children, like a spray, that’s safe, effective, and easy to deliver.

“We might be able to prevent the bacteria from attaching to the tonsils in the first place because all the vaccines that are in development are all injectables,” Dr Iwasaki said.

Ms Flowers is hopeful about the “amazing” research.

“Anything that could stop someone having to go through what Chance went through is incredible,” she said.