A disease caused by a rare “flesh-eating bacteria” that can kill people within 48 hours is spreading in Japan after the country relaxed Covid-era restrictions.

Cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) reached 977 this year by June 2, higher than the record 941 cases reported for all of last year, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has been tracking incidences of the disease since 1999. 

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) typically causes swelling and sore throat in children known as “strep throat,” but some types of the bacteria can lead to symptoms developing rapidly, including limb pain and swelling, fever, low blood pressure, that can be followed by necrosis, breathing problems, organ failure and death. People over 50 are more prone to the disease.

“Most of the deaths happen within 48 hours,” said Ken Kikuchi, a professor in infectious diseases at Tokyo Women’s Medical University. “As soon as a patient notices swelling in the foot in the morning, it can expand to the knee by noon, and they can die within 48 hours.”

Other countries have experienced recent outbreaks. In late 2022 at least five European nations reported to the World Health Organization an increase in cases of invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) disease, which includes STSS. The WHO said the rise in cases followed the end of Covid restrictions.

At the current rate of infections, the number of cases in Japan could reach 2,500 this year, with a “terrifying” mortality rate of 30%, Kikuchi said.

Kikuchi urged people to maintain hand hygiene and to treat any open wounds. He said patients may carry GAS in their intestines, which could contaminate hands through faeces. 

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An Atlanta woman named Jennifer Barlow spent the last five months in the hospital after she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria while in the Bahamas and now has had her leg amputated.

According to Ms Barlow’s GoFundMe page, it is believed the bacteria started from a small cut on her leg exposed to ocean water while on a trip to the Bahamas.

In an interview with Today, the US Army veteran shared, “It was so swollen – it was at least three times the size of my left knee. It was really scary. She added, ” I was in excruciating pain.”

She shared that when she visited the emergency room, physicians said that it could be a simple strain. She was put on crutches and some medicine for pain.

Describing her pain, she said the limb was like a giant’s leg and so swollen and hot to touch.

After one day, she suddenly passed out on the floor. Her brother found her unconscious in her home requiring paramedics to rush her to the hospital where she would be immediately diagnosed with Septic Shock and spend 2 weeks in a coma because the bacteria entered her bloodstream.

She showed signs of kidney and liver failure. She needed a machine to help her breathe and medication to keep her stable.

“I was very concerned that she would not survive this,” said her physician, Dr. Jonathan Pollock from the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “It is fair to say that her life was in grave danger.”

According to the New York Post, Ms Barlow had contracted a rare, potentially lethal bacterial infection that results in necrotizing fasciitis, or a “flesh-eating disease,” which is believed to be caused primarily by group-A strep.

A 1996 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were 500 to 1,500 cases of necrotizing fasciitis annually in the United States, with about 20 per cent of them fatal. The National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation has said that the estimate is probably low.

According to a New York Post report, Ms Barlow was in a coma for 10 days, she underwent 12 surgeries during that time to remove dead tissue in her thigh.

Ms Barlow said, “I never in my life had heard of sepsis, and I had never heard of flesh-eating bacteria.”

When Ms Barlow was stable enough to be transported, she went to Grady Memorial Hospital for expert wound care, but ultimately underwent amputation in March despite doctors’ best attempts to save her leg.

“We were all the way down to muscle on the thigh on her leg,” said surgeon Dr Tamra McKenzie-Johnson, who was also involved in her care. Barlow estimates that she underwent over 30 surgeries.

Ms Barlow is now relearning how to live her everyday life with the loss of her leg.

The Go Fund Me page says, “This will help her to get back on her feet…..(or foot ), both physically and emotionally, to rebuild her life after such a devastating loss.”

Ms Barlow is hoping to get a prosthetic limb. “There are so many innovations and technology for prosthetics. I’m extremely open to linking up with somebody who could help me.”