A 26-year-old marketing manager has revealed how he almost died from a papercut.

Ryan Taylor, from Queensland's Gold Coast, developed an incredibly rare and deadly disease from a papercut he sustained at work in July.

He took himself to hospital the day after the cut, noticing swelling around his finger.

What he didn't notice was a flesh-eating bug had entered the wound.

Ryan Taylor, 26, is lucky to be alive after a tiny papercut developed into a flesh-eating disease

'At first they had no idea what they were treating,' he told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Grotesque peeling of the skin continued to move along his arm, spreading from his finger to elbow in as little as 12 hours.

The doctors rushed him into the operating theatre, warning him that they might have to amputate his arm.

He was told he could die.

Over the course of three weeks, Mr Taylor had 10 surgeries.

Doctors were forced to keep opening his forearm and flush out dead flesh the bug was leaving behind.

The marketing manager, who is still off work and recovering, was told he was lucky his arm wasn't amputated.

He is undergoing intensive physiotherapy three time a week to regain the full use of his hand.

He had contracted necrotizing faciitis, a flesh-eating bacteria which spread from his ring finger, all the way to his elbow in the span of 12 hours

The disease he had contracted was necrotizing fasciitis, a rapidly spreading, flesh-eating disease which enters through a break in the skin.

Worldwide, up to 40 per cent of victims die from the extremely deadly disease.

It's also rare, with only eight cases reported up to July by Gold Coast Health.

Gold Coast Medical Association president Dr Sonu Haikerwal said the disease was the last thing even a senior doctor would want to see.

'This is one of those nightmare diseases we hope as doctors we never see in our careers,' she said.