At the current rate of infections, the number of cases in Japan could reach 2,500 this year, with a mortality rate of 30%.
A disease caused by a rare tissue-damaging bacteria 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.
At the current rate of infections, the number of cases in Japan could reach 2,500 this year, with a mortality rate of 30%,” said Ken Kikuchi, a professor of infectious diseases at Tokyo Women’s Medical University.
"Most of the deaths happen within 48 hours,” Kikuchi said. "As soon as a patient notices swelling in (their) foot in the morning, it can expand to the knee by noon, and they can die within 48 hours.”
I guess they're linking it to easing COVID restrictions because hand washing helps prevent it. Did people stop washing their hands after using the toilet in Japan once the restrictions let up?
Did people stop washing their hands after using the toilet in Japan once the restrictions let up?
Did...they start?
Having lived briefly in Japan and for a while in Korea, most people left public (and workplace) washrooms without washing their hands. Even during the pandemic.
You're fucking joking. I give people the side-eye when they do that here in the U.S. and there are still plenty of people that at least go through the trouble of rinsing off their hands. Sure, most people don't make sure to really get the soap everywhere like I do, but for most people to do absolutely nothing...
This one's kind of funny to me. I lived for two years in Japan not knowing that men's restrooms typically don't even have soap. Women's restrooms usually do, and they get used. Despite me having lived there, it was my husband who taught me that there is no soap in the men's restrooms when we went on a visit.
Maybe I'm not understanding you. Why not say it is up from 2021 and 2022 instead of it is up since restrictions were in place? They are linking the uptick to the easing of restrictions by highlighting that as a difference between now and then.
Hand washing was encouraged and presumably increased during the restrictions. For any other country I would assume that also meant after using the toilet people were more likely to wash hands. But how much would that have impacted that culture in Japan?
Pretty sure I saw this referred to as Flesh Eating Bacteria a couple of days ago. I'm sure "tissue-damaging" is just as effective a warning moniker to keep people alert.
That’s correct. A majority of the increase is due to strep throat cases; there’s also an increase in streptococcal toxic shock syndrome from the bacteria going systemic. There is not a significantly increased amount of necrotizing fasciitis that I’m aware of. It’s been going on for a few months now.
Okay there's our smoking gun! So they too eat bats probably. I gotta assume that wherever we find bats, there's at least one idiot hungry enough to fry one.