{"id":390493,"date":"2026-09-04T17:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390493\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:12:10","slug":"4th-florida-death-from-vibrio-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390493\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Florida death from Vibrio infection"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A fourth Florida resident has died from a Vibrio infection, this time in Broward County, as state health officials<\/a> track 20 confirmed cases across Florida in 2026.<\/p>\n

Doctors say the Vibrio<\/a> bacteria breeds in warm lake, salt, and brackish waters \u2014 the kind Floridians swim in all summer long.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat particular one can get pretty aggressive,\u201d said Dr. Daniel Egan, an infectious disease physician at Orlando Health<\/a>. \u201cFortunately, cases are rare, but we always see upticks in cases around this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Preventing Vibrio Infection (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)Any wound is a door for infection<\/p>\n

Dr. Egan says even the smallest cut gives Vibrio a way into your body. A tiny nick from shaving. A blister from a sandal. A scrape on a rock. All of it counts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts off where the wound itself gets more red, gets more painful, redness starts to spread beyond the wound itself,\u201d Egan said, \u201cand then it can progress even to what people call flesh-eating bacteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waterborne infections like this tend to move fast \u2014 the incubation window is between 24 hours and a few days, Dr. Egan said. <\/p>\n

Confirmed Cases of Vibrio Vulnificus by County<\/p>\n

Source: Florida Department of Health<\/p>\n

Updated 9:30 a.m. ET, September 3, 2026<\/p>\n

County2025 Cases2025 Deaths2026 Cases2026 DeathsAlachua0000Bay2221Brevard0010Broward3121Charlotte0000Citrus \u20211000Clay0000Collier2000Duval1000Escambia3000Flagler1000Hernando \u20211000Hillsborough \u20212110Lee \u20214020Leon0000Manatee1000Marion0021Martin1000Miami-Dade0020Nassau1000Okaloosa1010Palm Beach0021Pasco \u20210000Pinellas \u20210000Polk1020Santa Rosa3020Sarasota \u20210000Seminole0000St. Johns2110Sumter0000Volusia1000Walton1000Washington1000Total335204* In 2022, Collier and Lee counties experienced an unusual increase due to the impacts of Hurricane Ian.\u2021 In 2024, Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties experienced an unusual increase due to the impacts of Hurricane Helene.The risk doesn\u2019t stop at the water\u2019s edge<\/p>\n

Vibrio isn\u2019t only a threat in the ocean. Dr. Egan says you can also be exposed by eating raw or undercooked shellfish \u2014 especially oysters.<\/p>\n

He recommends eating at reputable restaurants and paying close attention to contamination risks during food preparation if you\u2019re cooking seafood at home.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Health advises cooking oysters thoroughly: boil them in the shell until they open, then continue boiling for five more minutes, or steam until they open and cook nine additional minutes. Do not eat shellfish that do not open during cooking.<\/p>\n

\"\"Confirmed Cases of Vibrio Vulnificus as of September 3, 2026 (Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A fourth Florida resident has died from a Vibrio infection, this time in Broward County,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12513,156150,29718,93153,156136,156143,156135,26445,107752,156149,315,506,21392,156148,156147,3487,763,156137,1039,4717,156124,156139,28,1369,156132,30,156142,29,156127,156146,153225,156129,156131,156140,156144,156141,156126,156122,156134,156121,156133,156145,156123,156130,116734,156125,156128,156138],"class_list":["post-390493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alachua-county","tag-austin-county","tag-baker-county","tag-beach-safety","tag-beach-threat","tag-brackish-water-bacteria","tag-brackish-water-bacteria-florida","tag-bradford-county","tag-brantley-county","tag-brazoria-county","tag-brevard-county","tag-broward-county","tag-camden-county","tag-chambers-county","tag-charlton-county","tag-clay-county","tag-columbia-county","tag-cook-oysters-thoroughly","tag-duval-county","tag-flagler-county","tag-flesh-eating-bacteria-florida","tag-flesh-eating-bacteria-symptoms","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-florida-department-of-health-vibrio","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-health-advisory","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-water-safety","tag-galveston-county","tag-health-news","tag-how-to-prevent-vibrio","tag-orlando-health-vibrio-warning","tag-raw-oysters-risk","tag-saltwater-wound-infection","tag-seafood-safety-oysters","tag-vibrio-bacteria-warm-water","tag-vibrio-broward-county","tag-vibrio-emergency-room-signs","tag-vibrio-florida","tag-vibrio-incubation-period","tag-vibrio-infection-florida","tag-vibrio-infection-florida-2026","tag-vibrio-shellfish-oysters","tag-vibrio-vulnificus","tag-vibrio-vulnificus-symptoms","tag-vibrio-wound-infection","tag-waterborne-bacterial-infection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390493","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=390493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}