Fatal football boots: "Blisters from new football boots can do more than slow down budding soccer stars - they have the potential to kill, it was revealed yesterday. Doctors reported two cases of toxic shock in young footballers, caused by infected blisters from new boots. Both players, a girl, 13, and a boy, 11, were treated in hospital and survived. But toxic shock syndrome is known to have a 5 per cent fatality rate in children. The syndrome is an extreme life-threatening reaction to bacterial infection, causing fever and organ failure. It is mainly associated with an outbreak of cases in 1980 involving young women who used a particular type of tampon, now withdrawn from the market. In children, the syndrome is rare and mostly occurs as a complication of skin burns."