Necrotizing Fasciitis threatning Florida Coastline

What is going on along the Florida coastline?

An alarming rate of people along the Florida coastal region are contracting necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating disease that acts/kills very quickly. Overwhelming majority of cases have been narrowed down to wading/swimming in the ocean.

It is definitely water/ocean related predominantly although one women got it by simply scratching her leg whilst walking along Anna Maria island not actually entering the water which suggests it may be able to jump airborne momentarily before attaching to another subject - ie shrub constantly sprayed with ocean water etc.

Theres alot to be concerned about here, what is causing this flesh eating bug to suddenly be so aggressive, is the Atlantic Ocean turning on us if so why? Its not like its the Pacific where we could possibly lay blame on Fukushima.


endoftheamericandream.com... 019

a reply to: CthruU

I have no answers but it does seem each year we hear more and more about the bug; and that is inspite of the good people at the tourist advertising department.. I had a nurse many years ago tell me that maybe one in 5 gets reported out of Galveston, Tx. so go figure..

a reply to: CthruU


Sounds like the oceans are becoming one big Petri dish!

I live near the coast on the gulf, and I've pretty much decided not to go in the water. It's a shame considering beach life is all we know around here.


I suspect the tourism board hides a lot of this info because FL is pretty much based on tourism.

Cases in 2019 are adding up at a rate much higher than in previous years

It is merely conjecture to say "Oh well, at this rate there might be a higher number this year" and to take that quote and say that there is a "Threat" like never before?

Just fear tactics. NF has been, and will be, an issue for the medical community, and it's not really getting any worse.

It is however getting a little better, with better understanding of how to identify it sooner, and that leads to more definitive care.

The Florida bay did get dumped with a lot of corexit to help disperse the deepwater horizon oil spill, maybe 10 years ago now? It did make the beaches look nice and clean. Lots of reports of people getting sick at the time.

The most important thing if you get it is to seek medical treatment at the earliest signs of infection. I contracted MRSA-C from a mosquito bite when I was vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. MRSA is the bacteria involved in about a third of necrotizing fascitis.
My mosquito bite swelled, turned red and I developed an abscess on the knuckle at the site of the bite. Cellulitus developed quickly and the swelling and redness started moving up my arm. I went to the ER where they lanced the abscess and did a culture on the pus. Once they identified the infection, I was quickly prepped for surgery and they started feeding me Vancomycin via IV. After the surgery, the surgeon told me that if I had waited another hour to come to the ER, I would have needed to have my hand amputated.

Agricultural run off, i.e, fertilizer, pesticides, animal waste, mixed with human waste, warm ocean water and hot humid air. Breeds nasty chemical resistant bacteria.

Typical media scare-mongering. Nothing to see here.

From the article:

"Cases in 2019 are adding up at a rate much higher than in previous years..."

No numbers to support that statement.

I agree that reported cases have increased, but I associate that to better diagnoses and better reporting, as well as population increase (many more people at the beach). I seriously doubt the incidence of infection (number cases per 100,000 of the population), is on the rise.

Two weeks ago there was a case reported from the Chesapeake bay wherein a woman was diagnosed with the bacteria. Horrifying to be sure, but think about it this way: there are thousands of people that swim, water ski, canoe, kayak, paddleboard, fish, etc., every day in the Chesapeake Bay, and ONE case gets on the news wire and all TV and radio stations are reporting it.

It's scare-mongering.

It is way more dangerous to hop in your car and drive five minutes to the market. Nobody freaks out about that.

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

exactly what i was saying.

we've been seeing cases of it up here in NH as well. Most are controlled.

As to the previous poster talking about MRSA, alot of MRSA is contained and controlled and not progressed to the point of necrosis.

I think there's alot of scare going on, resting on the laurels of misinformation and ignorance to modern medicine, treatments, and actual statistics.

a reply to: CthruU

Remember that oil spill a few years ago?

I think they released GMO microbes (not synthetics) during the clean up, a 'previously unknownd species' and thus a completely 'new form of microbiology'. There's your possible connection to this recent hydrocarbon eating bacteria situation, which is precisely what some people from that area believe to be the case.

Here's more:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: PublicOpinion

More disinformation due to piss poor research.

Correlation IS NOT causation.

For Chrissakes people, do some research.

jcm.asm.org...

This is just one very small PubMed document, if you want more, just search. There are millions of papers available. Just GTFO of youtube where people just talk and no one is held accountable. These papers on PubMed are actually peer reviewed and held to standard.

a reply to: CthruU

...necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating disease that acts/kills very quickly.

Generally speaking, necrotizing fascitis is not one disease, but a common symptom among several different types of bacterial infection. So it could be ecoli, staph, pneumococcal, etc. And it's a problem all along the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas.

Your best bet is to avoid being infected to begin with; but if it happens, it's not something to try and treat at home -- and I'm the type that doesn't go to the doctor except as an absolute last resort!

Symptoms of Necrotizing Fasciitis
One tricky thing about necrotizing fasciitis is the way it may seem like just any other injury or illness. Soreness will generally spread (some describe it as the feeling of a pulled muscle around the injury site) and is followed by flu-like symptoms. Signs to look for include:

Soreness around a wound: This will generally be far more painful than the severity of the wound would usually induce.
Red or purple swelling: If you experience this symptom, it’s likely to spread quickly. Some people suggest making a mark at the edge of the swelling and then looking at it an hour later. If the swelling has extended a quarter inch or more, get to the hospital right away. Swelling, also known as erythema, is extremely common, especially accompanied by flu symptoms.
Ulcers: Not all people experience this, but some sufferers of flesh-eating bacteria get ulcers, black spots or blisters on their skin.
Tenderness: Tender skin around the affected area, especially if it seems out of proportion to the wound, might also signal a serious problem.
Bullae: A bulla is a specific type of blister. Patients with necrotizing fasciitis sometimes have bullae filled with serous (transparent or pale yellow) fluid. A hemorrhaging bulla is one late sign of necrotizing fasciitis that should cause major concern.
Flu-like symptoms: Fever, chills, fatigue and vomiting are all common and usually pop up within a few hours of infection.
Skin necrosis: The death of patches of skin is a late sign of necrotizing fasciitis.
Fluctuance: This odd symptom is seen in end-stage necrotizing fasciitis. Fluctuance is a “wave-like feeling” that occurs when an infected wound is touched.
Sensory and motor deficits: Another final symptom usually experienced by patients already under hospitalization, sensory and motor problems may occur as the infection spreads.

Necrotizing Fasciitis: How to Avoid Flesh-Eating Bacteria

Be careful and be safe folks!

a reply to: Iconic

Well. We'll have to wait for the results.

Research by the Berkeley Lab and others determined that indigenous microbes, including a previously unknown species, degraded the oil plume to virtually undetectable levels within a few weeks after the damaged wellhead was sealed. Another study showed that the methane and other gaseous compounds in the water column were also almost completely degraded within three months.

The full impact of the surface oil on shorelines, however, has not yet been determined. In their paper, Hazen and Atlas say that “up to 40-percent of the oil was lost in the water column between the wellhead and the surface, largely due to dissolution and mixing as the oil moved to the surface and evaporation as soon as it reached the surface.” This lowered the hydrocarbon concentrations and changed the composition of the oil that did reach the shore. But they also say that it is too early to tell the impact of the BP oil spill on the delicate marsh environments and beach communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

sciencebusiness.technewslit.com...

This study of acute and long-term health effects to the general public is a companion to NIEHS’s Gulf Long-term Follow-up (GuLF) Study that focused on on the oil spill cleanup workers and volunteers. The GuLF Study is expected to last up to 10 years and evaluate the health of 55,000 people.

NIH says of the $25.2 million in total funding for the new study, $3.2 million was provided by BP specifically for research on the health of Gulf area communities following the oil spill. BP, however, is not involved in the program or any of the research.

sciencebusiness.technewslit.com...

a reply to: PublicOpinion

Both those sources are 8 years old. Anything more relevent?

And neither of them take into account the agriculture chemical run off which does far more damage to the Gulf.....

Too many things in peoples immune systems whacking them up. Just my opinion people are getting weaker.

Overblown article imo. I recently moved from Tampa, on the water. This problem is highly unusual and generally effects only the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. I heard of 2 cases over 7 years.

It needs to enter your body through open wounds in a compromised person to take hold.

Just don't swim in natural water anywhere if you have fleshwounds, or bad bug bites.

These same people can get this problem from tap water. Particularly when water temp drops below a certain point. Hence the code with the shower distances from hod water heaters and min water temp requirements.
That crap can build up in the stagnant pipes between faucet and heater, so a burst of contaminated water comes out before the sterilized hot water flushes the line.
So let your hot water run first if you are old, have wounds, or compromised immune system.
Salt is a pretty ba chemical and can kill most bacterias, so those tough enough to survive in the ocean get pretty hardcore, so it's a good practice not to go into the ocean or even fresh water when your skin is damaged in any way.

I don't think I'd be canceling my keys vacay any time soon, this is a very rare situation.

Old as heck.

You've been warned many years ago.

Gotta love it when the OOS'ers (out-of-staters) panic over something that's been a problem for decades, but is only getting more attention NOW because of population growth, tourism growth and insta-news at your cell phone's ready.

Got news for you guys. It's been around a long-ass time down there, this is not a new phenomenon. They were closing beaches not just for crap like e-coli, but also flesh eating bacteria, since I was a kid down there. Sometimes there's years between incidents, sometimes there's a rash of them at once. Looks like they were up for the latter this time.

This bug has been around for many millennia. Even Hippocrates wrote about it, in cringe-inducing detail. Now, think about how long ago Hippocrates was alive. Puts this into much better perspective.

I'm not saying it's not a big deal when someone develops it (because it is) but I am saying it's not new, and people acting like it is are spreading a doomsday panic over something we've already been living alongside for thousands of years. Hell, during the Civil War, they called it "hospital gangrene" and it had a nearly 50% mortality rate. I think we're doing pretty well today compared to the past, they had it much rougher.

NF has been with humans for a very, very long time, and I highly doubt we're ever going to be rid of it.

a reply to: CthruU
www.theepochtimes.com...
Virginia Woman Gets Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Visiting Beach

A Virginia woman has been diagnosed with a flesh-eating infection after visiting a local beach, reports said.

According to WTKR, Amanda Edwards and her friends visited Ocean View Beach in Norfolk last week, and the following day she had symptoms that made her suspect flesh-eating disease.

“I noticed this thing that came on my leg,” she told the TV station. “I ignored it for a couple days, and it just started getting bigger and bigger and bigger to the point where I couldn’t walk anymore.”

Edwards said doctors diagnosed her with a staph infection caused by flesh-eating bacteria. They drained the swollen area and prescribed antibiotics.

Alabama Man Clings to Life After Getting Flesh-Eating Bacteria
www.theepochtimes.com...
Mom Says Son Contracted Flesh-Eating Bacteria at Maryland Beach
www.theepochtimes.com...
12-Year-Old Girl Develops Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Swimming at Florida Beach