{"id":358236,"date":"2026-07-31T00:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:09:11","slug":"flesh-eating-bacteria-infections-in-florida-1-dead-12-confirmed-cases-health-officials-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358236\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Flesh-eating\u2019 bacteria infections in Florida: 1 dead, 12 confirmed cases, health officials report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published:\u00a0July 30, 2026 at 7:16 PM<\/p>\n

Updated:\u00a0July 30, 2026 at 7:27 PM<\/p>\n

lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand\"\"FILE PHOTO: This is a file photo of a patient suffering from an infection of the flesh-eating bacteria in Florida. (WPLG) <\/p>\n

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A patient aged 80 to 84 was the first to die this year in Florida of a confirmed Vibrio vulnificus<\/a>, better known as the \u201cflesh-eating bacteria,\u201d infection, according <\/a>to the Florida Department of Health\u2019s data on Thursday. <\/p>\n

The death was in Palm Beach County. There have been 12 more infections statewide so far this year, including two more in Palm Beach and two in Miami-Dade County, according to the FDOH\u2019s data. <\/p>\n

The other eight cases were in Bay, Hillsborough, Lee, Marion, Okaloosa, Polk, and St. Johns counties, according to the FDOH. Last year, there were five deaths and 33 cases. <\/p>\n

Eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters, and swimming in marine waters with an open wound increases the risk of exposure to the bacteria, according to the FDOH. <\/p>\n

People with weakened immune systems are at a higher risk of severe and life-threatening illness with symptoms such as fever, chills, septic shock, and blistering skin lesions, according to the FDOH. <\/p>\n

FDOH data<\/p>\n

\"\"FDOH Flesh eating bacteria cases in Florida <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

\"AndreaAndrea Torres<\/p>\n

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0July 30, 2026 at 7:16 PM Updated:\u00a0July 30, 2026 at 7:27 PM lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpandFILE PHOTO: This is a file…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-358236","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\/358236","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=358236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}