https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NddxILkO574Flesh Eating Bacteria Vibrio Vulnificus in Florida Gulf Waters - 31 Infected and 10 KILLED
Charles Walton
Charles Walton
Florida Victims of Flesh Eating Bacteria Vibrio Vulnificus Florida Flesh Eating Bacteria
The bacteria thrives in warm brackish seawater It can enter your system by eating infected oysters or through a flesh open wound while out swimming small purple lesions Gulf of Mexico Flesh Eating Bacteria
Dr. James Oliver, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, has studied vibrio vulnificus for decades He said that while Florida has the most cases of vibrio infection due to the warm ocean water that surrounds the state, the bacteria is found worldwide, generally in estuaries and near the coast "It's normal flora in the water," he said. "It belongs there." The vast majority of people who are exposed to the bacteria don't get sick, he said. A few people become ill but recover. Only a fraction of people are violently ill and fewer still die Oliver said many of those people ingest tainted, raw shellfish
Oliver and Florida Department of Health officials say people shouldn't be afraid of going into Florida's waters, but that those with suppressed immune systems, such as people who have cancer, diabetes or cirrhosis of the liver, should be aware of the potential hazards of vibrio, especially if they have an open wound
Konietzky watched as her husband Henry "Butch" Konietzky died on Sept. 23 The couple had gone crabbing on the Halifax River near Ormond Beach on Sept. 21, she said. Her husband first noticed the ankle lesion in the middle of that night. He didn't wake his wife, but in the morning, told her that it felt like his skin was burning near the lesion. Patty Konietzky took a photo of it and hours later, when her husband said he was in pain and the lesions had spread, they went to the emergency room Konietzky said her husband didn't have any health problems or open wounds that she knew of, and when doctors told her that he had an infection in his bloodstream, she didn't think it was too serious. Within hours, her husband's skin turned purple and it "looked like he had been beaten with a baseball bat" Nearly 62 hours after he was in the water, Butch Konietzky died. His wife notes that she, too, was in the same water yet wasn't infected.
