Vibrio vulnificus infections kill seven on Gulf Coast, health officials warn
At least seven deaths from the flesh-eating bacterium Vibrio vulnificus have been reported in Florida and Louisiana this year, prompting warnings about exposure through wounds or raw shellfish.
A warm-water bacterium known as Vibrio vulnificus has caused at least seven fatalities this year along the Gulf Coast, with two deaths in Florida and five in Louisiana, according to state health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly one in five infected individuals die nationwide.
The bacterium thrives in brackish coastal waters and can enter the body through open cuts or by consumption of raw shellfish. Health experts say people with liver disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV, thalassemia, or those on immunosuppressive drugs or acid-reducing medication are at higher risk.
"If you have those risk factors, and if you have an open wound or abrasion in your skin, you do not want to go swimming in brackish waters along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Seaboard," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Doctors advise immediate cleaning of any wound exposed to seawater and monitoring for symptoms such as fever, pain, redness, swelling, discharge, chills, nausea, stomach cramps or vomiting. Early detection improves survival, as illustrated by a survivor who required emergency surgery after a foot injury on Alabama’s Orange Beach.
Researchers have also identified the bacterium in waters as far north as New York, and Maryland health officials have warned residents to be cautious when swimming in Chesapeake Bay.