A flesh-eating bacterium infects three people who warn experts of the ocean warming



[ad_1]

In the past month, at least three people have contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection, which experts say could become more common as the world's oceans warm up.

Vibrio vulnificus is an "opportunistic pathogen" responsible for the majority of seafood-related deaths in the United States, according to an article written by the American Society for Microbiology. Bacteria grow in warm salty and brackish waters and enter the human body either through skin lesions or after consumption with raw seafood. Up to one-third of people with necrotizing fasciitis will die from this infection, which can cause a flesh-eating and often fatal bacterium called necrotizing fasciitis.

A woman in Florida died last month after contracting the bacteria when she fell into the water and cut off her leg – a wound that is only three-quarters of an inch, reported NBC. That afternoon, she felt an overwhelming pain in her leg. A few days later, her member was black and she was placed in a hospice, before succumbing. She was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis and subsequently suffered from two strokes, kidney failure and sepsis.

On another beach in Florida, a 12-year-old girl complained the same way of a pain that had started in her leg and had gone through her entire body, wrote her mother in a Facebook message . After a first visit to a local hospital, the doctors ordered the woman to send her daughter to a child health hospital in Indianapolis, where she was admitted to the ICU for knee infection and shock. septic, reports Today. Although her recovery was long, emergency surgery saved the girl 's life and prevented the amputation of her leg.

"We are not completely better, but we are on the road to recovery, we will have many doctor visits, physical therapy and blood tests, but all that matters is that my daughter is ALIVE I wanted to share her story with hope that it is crucial to know the signs and symptoms and get treatment quickly, "she wrote.

The number of cases in 2019 is much higher than in previous years: a young boy contracted a vibrio in Maryland last week after swimming on a local beach, reports CBS. The Miami Herald tells the story of a Florida man who contracted the flesh-eating bacteria and whose rapid action also prevented him from losing muscle tissue to the arm. Surprisingly, the man insisted that he had been infected without being in the water.

Necrotizing fasciitis can be caused by a number of different bacteria, but is usually caused by V. vulnificus when people walk in contaminated water with a cut or wound or eat raw shellfish infected with the bacteria. Endemic along the southeastern coast of the United States, the bacteria do not generally extend north of Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. However, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that as temperatures rise and make previously colder regions more welcoming to warm-water bacteria, infections will also increase in non-endemic areas.

The researchers reported five occurrences of necrotizing fasciitis caused by V. Vulnificus in New Jersey during the summers of 2017 and 2018. In contrast, only one case had been diagnosed in the past eight years, researchers at Medscape Medical News said.

Rapid spread infection begins with a red or swollen area of ​​skin, severe pain and fever, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Subsequent symptoms may include ulcers, blisters or blackheads on the skin, changes in color, pus or oozing from the infected area, as well as dizziness, fatigue, and diarrhea or nausea . The treatment requires hospital and intravenous antibiotics and surgery to reduce the rapid spread by removing dead tissue to prevent sepsis, shock and organ failure, as well as long-term complications for limb loss. and severe scars.

Related articles on the web

From your site

[ad_2]
Source link