![\"Natacha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/edfa3c43-7387-4cdc-9e1a-d1f9f9790ca6_1761279615.jpg\")
<\/a>LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nThe Florida Department of Health has confirmed another death from Vibrio vulnificus, a dangerous bacteria that thrives in warm water, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 14 with two cases in Lee County. <\/p>\n
The latest victim lived in Marion County, and the death follows a previous fatality in Palm Beach County late in July. The bacteria cannot penetrate intact skin but can infect individuals through small cuts or by consuming contaminated shellfish. <\/p>\n
“I may stay out of the water the rest of the day,” said Debra Garcia of Cape Coral. <\/p>\n
The Florida Department of Health has not disclosed where the latest victim contracted the bacteria or how the infection occurred. <\/p>\n
“I feel like more people need to know. They should know about it so they can make a decision for themselves,” Garcia said. <\/p>\n
Since there is no way to pinpoint exactly where the bacteria is present, health officials recommend carefully cleaning seafood and shellfish and avoiding water exposure when you have a cut. <\/p>\n
“I was hoping they would just shut it down or put a warning to let us know what was going on,” Garcia added. <\/p>\n
The Florida Department of Health in Lee County is investigating the two confirmed cases in the area and assessing potential impacts on local beaches.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida reports second death from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, two cases in Lee County LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[149672,149675,209,211,210,149670,28,149677,1369,4329,40279,356,149678,101515,3833,557,149671,149676,149673,116734,38804,149674],"class_list":["post-369795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-bacteria-infection","tag-beach-warning","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-contaminated-shellfish","tag-florida","tag-florida-cases","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-health-officials","tag-lee-county","tag-lee-county-cases","tag-local-beaches","tag-marion-county","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-seafood-safety","tag-shellfish-cleaning","tag-small-cuts","tag-vibrio-vulnificus","tag-warm-water","tag-water-exposure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369795","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=369795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}