Thats what I'm thinking too. And the infection rate of 165K isn't too low either for something that will 1/10. I know there are lots of thing killing a lot more people but this one doesn't look trivial specially if somehow the infection rate spreads.

It is. Consider the word "decimated."

Thanks, I did learn something today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29

"A cohort (roughly 480 soldiers) selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten. Each group drew lots (sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing."

"The procedure was a pragmatic attempt to balance the need to punish serious offences with the realities of managing a large group of offenders."

As the article says, its on par with rabies, which isn't nothing. It happens to occur mostly in poor areas, without adequate health resources, so we don't hear as much about it. The limited antibiotics it responds to is the most concerning part.

The comparison with rabies is the number of worldwide infections.

For rabies, postexposure vaccination is extremely effective in preventing infection and death. To the point that failures are notable:

https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/50/1/77/312471/Failure-...

Poor access to care/vaccines means that a lot of people still die from rabies, but it is the access that is the problem, not the effectiveness of the treatment.

Especially if it can kill in 48 hours, it doesn't leave a lot of time for the patient to seek help and to diagnose it.