A Texas resident died on July 24 after cutting his leg while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Carnivorous bacteria have entered the wound.
Earlier, another Texas resident, 55-year-old Jeanette LeBlanc, contracted carnivorous bacteria after eating oysters and doctors unsuccessfully fought for her life.
In early July, a 71-year-old resident of Sarasota (Florida), also through oysters, became infected with carnivorous bacteria and died within just two days.
Summer is still in full swing and many people are relaxing on the seas and oceans. This is also the period when doctors are facing a peak in the incidence of the so-called carnivorous bacteria of the genus Vibrio (vibrios).
These bacteria love warm, coastal saltwater and often infect people loved by shellfish, especially oysters. A person can become infected by eating oysters or directly in the water.
According to scientists, due to global warming, an inevitable rise in sea level is taking place and dangerous bacteria will become even more common. Writes about this Live Science.
There are more than 70 species of vibrios and 12 of them are recognized as dangerous to humans, including the notorious cholera vibrio.
But only two bacteria out of the twelve are considered dangerous for swimmers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These are bacteria of the species V. vulnificus (Vibrio vulnicus) and V. parahaemolyticus (Parahemolytic vibrio).
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Vibrio vulnicus bacterium.
Vibrio vulnicus is considered the most deadly and causes severe wound infections, which are called necrotizing fasciitis in medicine. We do not recommend that you google this term, the photos may shock you.
This bacterium literally devours human flesh, in a matter of days a person can lose all limbs, and then life. Even in "milder" cases, the victims can look like horror movie zombies, with wounds to the bone and deep holes.
Most often, necrotizing fasciitis is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes (pyogenic streptococcus) or Clostridium perfringens, but in recent years, Western media have increasingly written about Vibrio vulnificus. This carnivorous bacterium is common in the USA, Cuba and Brazil, but has already appeared in China, Thailand, France, Spain.
The bacterium Vibrio vulnicus infects approximately 40 out of a million people annually. But scientists are afraid that the number of cases will increase.
Healed wound of a survivor of Vibrio vulnificus infection.
Parahemolytic vibrio, unlike Vibrio vulnicus, enters the human body through eating oysters and other molluscs, and is not so dangerous.
According to Kimberly Rees, a marine microbiologist at the Virginia Institute, people who become infected with vibrios after eating shellfish tend to have gastrointestinal discomfort (diarrhea and vomiting). If a person is generally healthy and has good immunity, then nothing worse threatens him and he quickly recovers. However, people with weakened immunity can die from Parahemolytic vibrio.
Vibrio infestations peak between May and October, when coastal waters are warm. But every year the water temperature rises all over the world due to global warming and, accordingly, the number of vibrio diseases increases, which feel perfectly in warm brackish water.
According to a study published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts, from 1999 to 2005, the number of cases of vibrios in the United States increased by 80%.
Due to global warming, cases of carnivorous vibrios may begin to appear in places where these diseases have never been recorded before, Kimberly Rees said.
Marine microbiologist Craig Baker-Austin of the UK, meanwhile, is confident that there is no need to panic. According to him, there are about 80 thousand cases of Vibrio infection in the United States every year, with about 100 deaths. But more people are infected with the flu virus.
Nevertheless, he warns that it is better to beware once again and not to climb into the warm coastal sea water if you have scratches or open wounds on your body that are a "door" for bacteria. Also, you should not eat shellfish in questionable places.