Curse of the Killer Bug

Overview

"Killer bug ate my face!" "Dither and you die!" screamed the tabloid headlines in May this year. For one week the nation was terrorised by an outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria stories. The "epidemic" of streptococcal infections started in Gloucestershire, but within days claimed victims across the country. Then suddenly there were no more reported cases and the panic was over. Curse of the Killer Bug goes behind the headlines to examine how the superbug scare happened. Staff at Stroud and Gloucester hospitals assess the way they handled the scare, journalists describe how the story broke and the people of Stroud talk about being the focus of a world news story. But this first programme in a new series of QED also reveals that while the headlines concentrated on these lurid cases, another deadly strain of bacteria has killed 60 people in the Midlands alone this year.