Two adults are receiving medical treatment in a Western Sydney Hospital for rare flesh-eating bacteria. The patients are contracted with nectrotising fasciitis. Dr Jon Iredell, director of infectious diseases at Westmead Hospital, has shared that getting infected with flesh-eating bacteria was just "bad luck."

Per The ABC, the 57-year-old man and 46-year-old woman, whose names were not made available to the public, are in a stable condition in Blacktown Hospital. "You or I could contract this if we had the right bug in the wrong place at the wrong time,"Iredell said.

Iredell explained that the infection would sometimes require intensive care and surgery to control it. "The infection tends to undermine the tissues a bit and so you have to often operate more than once," Iredell said. Antibiotics can also be utilised to combat the infection.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that necrotising fasciitis is a serious bacterial skin infection that spreads quickly. Also known as gas gangrene, it can also kill the body's soft tissue.

But the Blacktown Hospital has assured that the public should not be alarmed. "There is no risk to public health and the community should not be alarmed," a spokesperson for the hospital said on Tuesday.

In Australia, 400 cases are diagnosed every year based on the data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The condition can be picked up by various types of bacteria, including more than one type of bacteria group A Streptococcus, Klebsiella, Clostridium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Aeromonas hydrophila.

Australian Medical Association NSW board member and dermatologist Dr Saxon Smith has also explained that necrotising fasciitis attacks layers of fat and muscle. "It can spread really quickly and it can cause a gas formation under the skin that you can see on X-ray," Smith warned.

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