Florida resident dies from flesh-eating bacteria, officials confirm...from salt water...

Ok....so I have read the stories of people dying from flesh eating bacteria that are in fresh bodies of stagnant water, but this is a game changer for me. This person got it from swimming with an open wound in the ocean. Ummmm.....THAT is scary. So if I scrape my foot or someone in my family gets a scratch and hits the ocean for some fun there is now a risk of dying?

This has me wondering if the whole starfish melting story was in fact some form of flesh eating bacteria that has now found its way to the Florida shores and mutated at some point to be more deadly.

A Florida resident has died after contracting “flesh-eating bacteria,” officials confirmed Tuesday.

The unidentified patient was middle-aged and had chronic health problems, a Florida Department of Health spokesperson told MyFoxTampaBay.com.

The victim contracted the bacteria after saltwater entered an open wound, the spokesperson said. It is not clear when the incident occurred, and officials did not release what body of water the patient contracted the bacteria in.

Source

Now I know it does not specifically state that it was the ocean in the article, but if it is salt water then it either had to be the ocean or a body that is fed by the ocean and can return to the ocean as well. This is scary to me.

Two days ago I stepped on a decaying shell at the beach. I later found pieces of shell imbedded in my foot and this was the first thing I thought of. Fortunately the area isn't red or even tender so I think I'm ok. fter reply to: Vasa Croe

We pulled two giant channel whelks out of the same cove and had scungili for dinner the next day!!!

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

I would still be cautious with it. This bacteria is nasty from all the accounts I have read. I couldn't imagine going for a fun day at the lake or beach and ending up dead or having a limb cut off.

I am really wondering now if the starfish wasting that has been described as their basically melting into mush, has anything to do with a flesh eating bacteria sort of situation and it either has not been tested or is not being released. Could be it was a strain of the bacteria that does not affect other life that is slowly finding a way to mutate in order to continue?

Too bad those tiny life forms aren't aware. If they were they could figure out a way to not kill their hosts.
I didn't hear about melting star fish. Will research that.
So far my foot shows no sign of distress. The wounds are very shallow and look perfectly clean. h reply to: Vasa Croe

a reply to: Vasa Croe

"Fresh bodies of stagnant water" sounds a little contradictory in your OP.

I wonder if these bacteria are related to the ones in the brown recluse spider?

S&F. I haven't heard much of this for a while now, it seems like I forget about things like this if I am not reminded every few months. You would think that we could smell these things in the water if there were a lot of them. Some stagnant water smells really bad while others don't smell too bad.

a reply to: rickymouse

Fresh as in not salt water, and stagnant as in lake or pond. I think there was one case of a girl on a river too.

This is the first I have heard of halotolerant flesh eating bacteria though.

I lived very close to a beach when I was younger. There was sometimes turds floating around due to sewerage outlet a few kilometers up the coast. I would try to back paddle to escape but they would mysteriously start bobbing after me as if there was some kind of homing device.

I wonder if this person was swimming near a sewerage outlet or something similar.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

here's some reports from my neck of the woods. i live in one county and drive through all in about two hours
and a report in Mobile County Alabama about 75 miles away.
My county

They haven't said if its the same man we told you about yesterday who died last Friday after fishing in Santa Rosa Sound last week..

Read More at: www.weartv.com...
Santa Rosa Co. confirms first case of flesh-eatin

Escambia

V. vulnificus is in the same family as the bacteria that causes cholera, and is halophilic, meaning it requires a salty environment.
28th case of 'flesh-eating bacteria' confirmed in Florida; 9 dead so far

Mobile County Al.

There is now one confirmed case of the flesh eating bacteria Vibrio Vulnificus in Mobile County.
Mobile County now has confirmed case of Vib l

An acquaintance of mine is actually battling something like this. Y'all will just have to take my word on this one, as I am not going to post his name and city here. He and his family were on vacation, I believe it was in South Africa, at the beach. He had cut his foot on something in the water. The cut wouldn't heal, and he developed open, weeping wounds on his leg, like holes. Then it moved to his other leg as well. He was being treated by a Wound Care Specialist here in the States, last time I saw him. He had to have his legs wrapped up tightly, and the prospect of amputating his foot was very real. I know he tried unconventional treatments too. He was a big, vital man, and in the matter of a few years was reduced to a shell of his former self. He lost his job, his wife left him (just couldn't handle it), and he still doesn't know what he contracted.

It is very scary, but also very sad. We moved away, but I'm still Facebook friends with his ex-wife. She was pregnant with twins when he got sick. He couldn't help her very much when they were infants. He was on heavy-duty painkillers (I am assuming he still is). Breaks my heart.

thought i'd post this one to.

There are now 32 confirmed cases in Florida and 10 deaths. There is one reported case in Escambia County and one death in Santa Rosa and one death in Okaloosa Counties. There are also two reported cases in Mobile County.
Vibrio Vulnificus Bacteria cases continue to rise Read More at: www.weartv.com...

i swear i'm not spaming your thread but here is a ABC news reort about it and another brain eater.

“Since it is naturally found in warm marine waters, people with open wounds can be exposed to Vibrio vulnificus through direct contact with seawater,” the Florida Department of Health said in a statement.
The infection can also be transmitted through eating or handling contaminated oysters and other shellfish, according to the CDC.
Warm Water Sparks Flesh-Eating Disease Warning in Florida

A 9-year-old Johnson County girl is the latest victim of Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba that lurks in warm, standing water. The girl died July 9 from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, an extremely rare but almost invariably fatal brain infection.
Warm Weather Stirs Up Brain-Eating Amoeba Warning

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Ha...I look at it more as getting a broader view on just how much this is going on and in what areas. This is some scary stuff to me.....I can't imagine a worse way to go.

It was known in Roman times that anyone who went into the public baths with an open wound didn't last 48 hours.
Many beaches are also next to sewer outlets, so the bacteria count is far higher than it would be far out to sea. Combine that with water rationing or low rainfall levels, and the concentration goes higher.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

yeah when i was younger we lived at the beach, swam in the bays,river, creeks, and anywhere else we could think of and never did anyone catch any of this that's going around now.

what a difference 35 years can make.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

I picked up giardia once a long time ago from a lake in New Hampshire. Didn't hit me until I was a week in on a 2 week camping trip in the mountains of San Diego. Had to be helicoptered out and stayed in a local hospital for a couple days from dehydration. I buried 2 sleeping bag inserts and a few pairs of long underwear out there before we were able to contact some local help. That was the worst experience I have ever had.

Crazy what something you can't see can do to you.

Ya but think of this...when you die and you go to the next part of your journey wherever that is. Everyone will be sitting around some table...bragging about life...trying to one up each other just like we do here. And you know what? When they all get done saying all the lame ways they died...you can unleash the fact that you died by a flesh eating bacteria. Then you simply get up and walk away from an amazed table...without paying the bill...because i'm sure there are still bills in the afterlife. Sign me up for flesh eating bacteria for the afterlife street cred alone!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Firstly, officials should release the info on where the victim was swimming to alert public safety awareness.

Secondly, the guy had many chronic health problems so his immune system had already been compromised.

Thirdly, I don't think flesh eating bacteria is related to melting of the starfish, but I do think there is a mutated flesh eating bacteria that could be responsible for the starfish death.

This story reminds me of a thread I read recently detailing SYNTHIA, the synthetic bacterial organism created to clean up the oil in the gulf that has these effects. If this is what is the cause of this then we are just seeing the beginning I'm afraid.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I'm pretty sure the bacteria responsible for the flesh eating disease is both in, and on our body all the time.... It's our bodies sudden inability to fight it off, and it over running that causes the disease. This is why people with Imuno-crompomised disabilities are advised to stay away from certain foods, places, activities, and people.

en.wikipedia.org... Warning some graphic images of flesh eating infection.

As per the article, the bacteria that causes this type of infection is very commonly found on people, as well as is responsible for sore throats and other minor ailments.

The term Flesh Eating Disease, often scares people and sounds exotic, but proper diet, exercise and good health practices as well as wound care can almost always prevent these types of infection. How ever, it's pretty hard to know you are immune compromised, so it's probably best to have regular visits to the doctor to give you a heads up to such a situation, as well treat all wounds as if they could create an infection. Have them properly cleaned, or learn to properly clean your wounds yourself.

Stay safe folks. There have been more than a few stories from where I am from, of people developing a necrotising bacterial infection from scratches from a twig while hiking. This bacteria is literally everywhere, and though it's mostly harmless there are instances where it can become something much much worse.