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A flesh-eating bacteria raising concerns in coastal southeastern states has led to several deaths and dozens of illnesses. Health officials in Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Florida, and other nearby states are closely monitoring the number of cases involving the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus.
North Carolina has reported 59 V. vulnificus infections and one death this year, according to WRAL News. Florida has reported 13 cases of Vibrio vulnificus, resulting in eight deaths. Alabama and Mississippi health officials have also confirmed infections involving the flesh-eating bacteria in their states.
In Louisiana, the Department of Health issued an alert last week urging residents to take precautions to prevent infection from Vibrio vulnificus. 17 cases of Vibrio vulnificus have been reported among Louisiana residents with four resulting in death. 75 percent of the cases in Louisiana reported wound exposure to seawater. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has also published an alert about Vibrio in saltwater.
“Every water sample we collect along the coast now contains some kind of Vibrio. That wasn’t true two decades ago,” Rachel Noble, a microbiologist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, told WRAL News.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vibrio are bacteria that naturally live in coastal waters and cause people to get an infection called vibriosis. People can get vibriosis after swallowing Vibrio (usually by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters) or by having it come into contact with an open wound.
Signs, treatment options and prevention
Signs and symptoms of Vibrio infection include watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever, and chills. If Vibrio gets into and infects a person’s bloodstream, it can also cause dangerously low blood pressure and blistering skin lesions. Should it infect an open wound, symptoms that present themselves include fever, redness, pain, swelling, warmth, discoloration, and leaky discharge.
The CDC recommends antibiotics to treat severe or prolonged Vibrio infections, but also states that Vibrio wound infection may also require surgery to remove dead or infected tissue, and may include amputation.
The Florida Department of Health recommends cooking seafood to safe internal temperatures before eating; keeping raw or undercooked seafood and their juices away from other foods; washing your hands with soap and water after handling raw seafood; covering open wounds, cuts, or scrapes with a waterproof bandage when in contact with seawater, brackish water, floodwater, or standing water; immediately cleaning wounds with clean water and soap after any exposure to such water, or to raw or undercooked seafood or their juices; and seeking immediate medical attention if a wound becomes red, swollen, oozes pus, or shows other signs of infection such as fever, increasing pain, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, confusion, or disorientation.