A
man has caught a flesh-eating bacteria after while wading in warm water. Officials say that it’s the warm, not too
salty water where the bacteria live.
The man says that after a couple of days out of the water, he noticed
what appeared to be a bug bite. That’s
what killed him.
They
are saying that the bacteria responsible for his death is Vibrio
vulnificus. If you have diseases like
cancer or liver disease, your mortality rate is 50%.
“It’s
not that serious” for people who are generally healthy, said Heidar Heshmati,
Brevard County health director, about an infection contracted through an open
wound. “But you will have a huge infection in the skin and you will be treated
for that.”
Two
Brevard County men — a 62-year-old from Rockledge, Fla., and a 74-year-old from
Melbourne, Fla. — have recovered from the potentially fatal bacteria that
infected their skin after they went fishing in Indian River Lagoon.
Twenty-seven cases of the infection have been reported to the Florida
Department of Health this year.
Brevard
County generally has one to four cases each year, Heshmati said.
About
half of infected wounds require surgical removal of damaged tissue or
amputation.
The
bacteria is much more serious when ingested. Eating a single contaminated
oyster can kill.
Florida
averages 50 cases, 45 hospitalizations and 16 deaths annually, most in the Gulf
Coast region, according to the state Department of Health. Across the country,
about 95 cases, 85 hospitalizations and 35 deaths occur.
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