NBC News
The deaths from the so -called “eat” bacteria go upwards on the southeast coast of the United States: at least five people in Florida, four in Louisiana and one in the coastal area of North Carolina and Mississippi have died this year for those infections, which cause necrotic lesions.
The fault is of the bacteria Vibro vulnificuswhich lives in warm salty waters. We tell you who are at greater risk to this threat and what preventive measures can take.
Florida has reported 16 infections this year, according to the State Health Department. In Louisiana, 17 cases have been reported, more than the average of the past years. In North Carolina there have been seven cases so far from 2025, according to NBC News the State Health Department. And in Mississippi there have been three cases, according to the authorities.
This year the bacteria seems to be more active, says Antpreet Jutla, professor and researcher at the University of Florida. Infections are usually unusual, he adds, but “there is something different this year”, although there are still many possible factors to know exactly what.
“This is not normal: we have not had so many cases so at the beginning of summer in a long time,” says Jutla.
The expert says that after hurricanes there are usually more infections of Vibrio vulnificus, In part because the bacteria can stay alive in the flood waters caused by a cyclone.
“It seems that something happened this year that unleashed the pathogen more than on other occasions,” says Jutla, pointing out that he and colleagues investigate a possible link with higher concentrations of plankton and chlorophyll in the water in the Panhandle or Florida enclave.
This year’s hurricane season is expected to be more active than normal, according to the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration (NOAA, in English).
A highly mortal bacterium
The bacteria can cause infections when entering the organism through open -wounds in the skin, and begins to cause the affected tissue to begin to die (what is known as necrotive fasciitis), according to the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English).
People can also get infected with Vibrio vulnificus through contaminated foods, such as raw oysters or other little cooked shellfish.
Approximately 1 in 5 people infected with this bacterium dies, according to CDC.
(These mortal bacteria can travel through the ocean hidden in sargasso and plastics)
Vibrio vulnificus It is one of more than 200 species of the Vibrio bacteria, explains Rita Colwell, Emerita Professor of Microbiology at Maryland University.
Most vibrio strains infections are not especially harmful to humans – there are about 80,000 cases of all strains a year, which in general only cause gastrointestinal discomfort – while some only affect other animals.
Every year of those 80,000 infections about 100 or 200 are of the type Vulnificus, According to data collected by the Cleveland Clinic group.
The bacterium in general prefers warm waters, so in the United States they are usually on the southeast coast. Although Jutla says that, due to the warming of oceanic temperatures due to climatic emergency, in recent years cases have been reported more and further north, such as in New York, Connecticut or Maryland.
Who are at risk?
The bacterium can be put into open wounds of anyone who gets to spend time in salt water or brackish, indicates Norman Beatty, a doctor specialized in infectious diseases at University of Florida Health. Beatty says that most cases have been linked to spend a lot of time in the water, but that “sometimes it is only needed to” expose short time having open wounds.
(Dozens of beaches close in the US before the weekend of July 4 by the presence of fecal bacteria)
The visible signals of an infection are noticed after a few hours, according to Beatty: redness, inflammation and ampoules that seem targets or archery targets. The infection site will also feel sore.
If the infection progresses can enter the bloodstream and thus cause a sepsis, which can be deadly. Sepsis symptoms include having fever, chills and that blood pressure collapses dangerously, according to CDCs.
People who suffer from cirrhosis or have a weakened immune system (either by some disease such as lupus or by aging) are at a greater risk of being infected, according to Jutla.
Comecarne bacteria infections can be treated with antibiotics.
Tips to prevent
Beatty said that he recommends covering any wound before entering the ocean and that for this it is enough to use a curita or waterproof band-a-proof.
If someone believes to have an infection, it is important that you seek medical help immediately because it took time could lead to more severe complications.
“The time that passes before you go to review is usually the reason why many people have a more serious result,” he says. “People who are the same day with signs of an early infection receive antibiotics and can improve without the infection progressing serious complications.”
