Doctors and health experts in Singapore have warned people that at least 90 people have been attacked by a flesh eating bug over the past five years in the island republic and said the species lived in salt water and around crabs, clams, mussles among others.
The warning came in the wake of the death of an elderly man who was bitten by a crab when he was cleaning it before cooking.
The 83-year-old Tan Boon Hock fell ill in Singapore 12 hours after he was infected with Vibrio, a type of water borne flesh eating bacteria and died two days later.
Once the bacteria entered the body, usually through a break in the skin, like a bite, it could produce toxins and spread rapidly affecting organs like kidney and liver, the experts were quoted by the media here as saying.
According to Changi General Hospital at least 90 people had been attacked by the flesh eating bugs in the past five years.
The head of the department of the infectious diseases at the National University Hospital said the mortality rate was very high. He said there were high rate of survival chances if the disease was detected early in a young and healthy victim.