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Japan
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

As Japan battles ‘flesh eating’ infection outbreak, health authorities attempt to soothe visitors’ jitters

  • Global media reports have highlighted a spike in the number of cases of the rare but frequently deadly streptococcal toxic shock syndrome
  • The health ministry says travellers need not worry. But it remains unclear how widespread the illness is, or why it seems to be spreading so quickly

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People wearing protective face masks walk through Shibuya, Tokyo. Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases recorded 474 STSS cases between January and March 10, compared to 941 for the whole of last year. Photo: Reuters
Julian Ryall
Health authorities in Japan are attempting to play down reports in foreign media of a sharp uptick in the number of “flesh eating” streptococcal toxic-shock syndrome (STSS) cases, although a leading doctor of infectious diseases has admitted that it was unclear how widespread the illness is or why it seems to be spreading so swiftly.
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Global media coverage of the outbreak has highlighted a spike in the number of cases of the rare but frequently deadly bacterial infection, highlighting an apparent fatality rate of 30 per cent.

A health ministry official stressed that travellers concerned about contracting STSS need not cancel their plans to visit Japan, telling the Asahi newspaper that the frequent washing of hands, use of a face mask and keeping any open wounds clean should be sufficient to prevent infection.

People walk across a road in Tokyo on Monday. Cases of “flesh eating” STSS have been reported in 45 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Photo: EPA-EFE
People walk across a road in Tokyo on Monday. Cases of “flesh eating” STSS have been reported in 45 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Photo: EPA-EFE
Media coverage of the outbreak intensified when North Korea cancelled plans for the Japanese national football team to travel to Pyongyang last month for a qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup, with North Korean football authorities citing concern that the foreign players would bring “the contagious disease spreading in Japan” into the country.
Japan’s health ministry pointed out that the World Health Organization had not moved to limit travel to Europe in 2022 during a similar rise in STSS cases in the region.

From the start of the year to March 10, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) recorded 474 STSS cases, compared with 941 in the whole of last year. The infection has also spread across the nation, with cases reported in 45 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, NIID said.

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“There are still many unknown factors regarding the mechanisms behind fulminant [severe and sudden] forms of streptococcus, and we are not at the stage where we can explain them,” the institute said.

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