![\"Randi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e5df93fa-f488-4c04-962b-4ef834927d2d_1508880234.jpg\")
<\/a>BATON ROUGE, La. \u2014<\/p>\nThe Louisiana Department of Health is warning residents to be careful in warm coastal waters, as cases of Vibrio vulnificus are on the rise. <\/p>\n
So far in 2026, there have been nine cases of the deadly bacteria, all of which involved people who had wounds exposed to seawater. The patients also had underlying health conditions. <\/p>\n
All nine patients were hospitalized, and five died. <\/p>\n
During the same period over the previous 10 years, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death. <\/p>\n
Vibrio bacteria are found naturally in warm coastal waters. The number of cases tend to increase from May to October, when water temperatures are warmer. <\/p>\n
Infection can occur when an open wound is exposed to brackish or salt water or when a person eats raw or undercooked seafood, particularly oysters. <\/p>\n
Vibrio infection can result in gastrointestinal illness, wound infection, or blood poisoning. <\/p>\n
People with severe infections may require intensive care or limb amputation. About one in five people with Vibrio vulnificus infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill. <\/p>\n
Seek medical care immediately if a wound exposed to brackish or salt water becomes red, swollen, painful, warm, or discolored. Tell the health care provider about the water exposure.<\/p>\n
Signs of a bloodstream infection include fever, chills, dangerously low blood pressure, and blistering skin lesions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New warning from Louisiana health leaders after deadly bacteria found in coastal waters Five people from Louisiana have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[341991,36412,8609,3149,4129,250215,97,252,253,21729,6098,18754,3590,1478,40322,341990,13898,57801,341989,341988,4398,29189,116726],"class_list":["post-805588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-blood-poisoning","tag-case","tag-death","tag-disease","tag-fever","tag-gastrointestinal-illness","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-infection","tag-louisiana","tag-patient","tag-people","tag-rise","tag-salt-water","tag-severe-infection","tag-vibrio-vulnificus","tag-vibrio-vulnificus-infection","tag-warm-coastal-water","tag-warm-waters","tag-warning","tag-waters","tag-wound"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}