\u201cFlorida Matters Live & Local\u201d <\/a>this week.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we enter the water with a wound that\u2019s open or sustain a wound in the water or eat a contaminated oyster that\u2019s not well cooked or raw, we can come down with this infection and in some cases it can be deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The infection is rare, with an estimated 100 to 200 cases reported in the United States each year. But Florida is considered a hotspot because warm temperatures and warm coastal waters create conditions where the bacteria can thrive.<\/p>\n
The risk is higher for people with weakened immune systems, including those with liver disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV or high levels of iron in the blood.<\/p>\n
Beatty told “LIve & Local” host Matthew Peddie the severity of an infection can vary widely.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person may develop a minor infection through a wound and it may not disseminate into the bloodstream, versus another person may have some risk factors and it can quickly become a rapid flesh-eating or necrotizing infection or into the bloodstream and make someone very sick and have sepsis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The bacteria does not actually \u201ceat\u201d flesh, but can produce toxins that cause tissue to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cPain at that site, some swelling, some redness developing, and it may be changing over several hours of time and even getting a blister\u201d can be warning signs of a serious wound infection, Beatty said.<\/p>\n
Those symptoms should prompt someone to seek medical care quickly, especially if the wound was exposed to salt or brackish water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually advocate for our patients telling providers, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve been in the brackish water, been in the saltwater, this wound was exposed. Consider Vibrio as a cause of this,\u2019\u201d Beatty said, so the patient can receive the appropriate antibiotics.<\/p>\n
Health officials recommend avoiding warm coastal waters if you have an open wound, keeping wounds covered and thoroughly cooking shellfish before eating. Surfaces that come into contact with raw or undercooked shellfish should also be disinfected.<\/p>\n
Florida has seen increases in Vibrio cases in recent years, with spikes after hurricanes that push warm coastal waters and debris inland. After Hurricane Helene in 2024, several coastal counties reported dozens of infections.<\/p>\n
WUFT’s Jocelyn Torres contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two new cases of Vibrio vulnificus, commonly known as \u201cflesh-eating bacteria,\u201d were reported in Florida during the week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-305167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}