system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how does toxic shock syndrome work and why does it become deadly so rapidly? My

My sex education was pretty much non existent in school and my parents never gave me “the talk” and so I had to learn a lot of things as an adult. Toxic shock syndrome was one of the many things  never fully explained to me and I only really know the basics. (Ie- the stuff printed in warning leaflets in tampon boxes). Last month I had a bit of a scare regarding toxic shock as I suddenly developed a fever and several flu like symptoms including vomiting while on my period. It turned out nothing but a nasty 24 hour bug but the incident motivated me to educate myself about TSS to avoid future panic. I understand that it’s a bacterial based infection but how exactly do the bacteria enter the body? why do tampons make the risk so much higher? How can it kill in such a short space of time? 

Help me educate myself here reddit!
gpt
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a rather rare diagnosis. Let's go into what it is and why it is so dangerous.

TSS is essentially an over-stimulation of your body's immune response. It is caused primarily by 2 bacteria (you don't need to know them but they are staph aureus and group a strep). These are actually extremely common bacteria; any time you have a pimple or skin infection it is almost always these two bacteria that cause it. But.... you've probably never had TSS even though you've been infected by these bacteria. Why is that?

Well, you only develop TSS if the specific bacteria that is infecting you has what is called a super-antigen. This is a protein in the bacteria that activates an absolutely MASSIVE amount of immune cells in your body. These immune cells are ready to fight and so they begin wreaking havoc all over your body destroying it from the inside. Most bacteria don't have this super-antigen. The interesting thing is it's actually very very likely you've been infected by a bacteria with a super-antigen before (probably one of those pimples you've had some time in your life). So why didn't you develop TSS? 

You didn't develop it because the bacteria didn't have access to your bloodstream. Once the bacteria are in your bloodstream, they can go anywhere and are in direct contact with many of your immune cells. In a pimple, the infection is walled off. This is exactly why tampons are bad. The inside of the vagina and uterus have a very very very rich blood supply (which makes sense because your uterine lining must be recreated every month). This means the bacteria have a rather easy time gaining access to your bloodstream. 

If a tampon is kept in long, they will grow bacteria on them, and the bacteria will keep multiplying. This means if you don't remove the tampon, you have essentially a factory in your vagina pumping out bacteria (this is why there is such a high risk). 

 It kills you in such a short period because of a few reasons. 1 is that as mentioned above, you have a factory churning out bacteria into your blood. 2 is that the infection is in your bloodstream meaning it can go anywhere in your body most notably your organs (liver, kidneys, lungs, heart). 3 is that you have hyper-activation of your immune system which destroys your body from the inside. 

It's a scary thing to see. Very very high death rate if you develop TSS. Depending on which bacteria it is, the death rate can go as high as 50%. Don't worry though, if you have some sniffles and a fever you probably don't have TSS.