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- In the southeastern United States, people can get Vibrio infection after being immersed in that water with an open sore or after eating raw shellfish.
- A new case report confirmed that this flesh – eating bacterium was spreading beyond its traditional region, in part because of the warming of the ocean temperature caused by climate change.
- Warning: This message contains graphic images.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
In Chesapeake Bay and along the Gulf Coast, people can become infected with a flesh-eating bacterial infection after eating or handling raw shellfish.
Infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus can lead to tissue death and sometimes lead to limb amputation. Fortunately, they are also rare in the United States.
However, a case report published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that rising ocean temperatures could lead to the spread of bacteria in hitherto unaffected waters.
"In 2017, we saw three cases of severe skin infections, which raised flags," said Business Insider's Dr. Katherine Doktor, an infectious disease specialist at Cooper University Hospital who co-authored drafted the report. "In 2018, we saw two more.These five cases are significant because in the eight years preceding 2017, we have seen only one case of Vibrio vulnificusat in our facility."
Read more: Man has been amputated from the arm after eating raw seafood contaminated with a potentially carnivorous bacteria
People can catch bacteria by handling or eating raw shellfish
In the past, V. vulnificus infections have occurred after people swam or have been in contact with seafood from Chesapeake Bay. But it was very rare that it happened further north, in the cooler bay of Delaware Bay. This is no longer the case, according to Doktor and his colleagues. The five patients in the case report were infected after being exposed to water in Delaware Bay or having consumed crabs in the area.
There are many species of Vibriobacteria and most of them make us sick, causing diarrhea, cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these symptoms usually disappear in about three days.
MaisV. vulnificuscancause of serious blood infections that are accompanied by blisters filled with blood and necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh disease, which kills body tissues. These infections can often be treated with antibiotics, but dead tissue sometimes has to be removed, or the limb badociated limb, to prevent infection from spreading to other parts of the body. The blood infection causes death in 20% of cases.
According to the CDC, people can become infected with Vibrio vulnificus by eating raw or undercooked crustaceans, especially oysters. It can also infect the skin if an open wound is exposed to brackish water or salt water. Some people get infections after wading in storm waters. There have been several deaths related to Vibrio after Hurricane Katrina, for example.
"The infection goes through the whole body, much like a hurricane or tornado that ravages everything," Doktor said.
Of the five patients mentioned in the new case report, three had to have the infected tissue removed, a man had his hands and feet amputated and one person died in the hospital.
The 2018 New England Medical Journal
Vibrio vulnificus
The bacterium expands its range due to warming waters
According to the authors of the case report, climate change is partly responsible for the growing diversity of this deadly bacterium. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded for the Earth's oceans. Warmer waters "are badociated with changes in the quantity, distribution and seasonal windows" of V. vulnificus. This probably explains why infections occur more frequently outside the traditional geographical limits of this bacterium, the authors wrote.
"The bacteria like warm, salty water," said Doktor, adding that cases peaked between late July and early October, when the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay were the hottest.
Doktor said the case report was intended to alert clinicians in the Delaware Bay area that they could be more infected with this type of infection than before, and urge them to consider it as a potential diagnosis when patients have wounds corresponding to V. vulnificus exposure. .
Ian Waldie / Getty Images
Blunt oysters
Vibrio infections have also been reported in Europe and, in 2018, a South Korean man had to be amputated from the left forearm after contracting the infection following the consumption of raw seafood .
V. vulnificus is not the only infectious disease to spread due to warming
Doktor said that patients who contract serious Vibrio infections, such as those mentioned in the case report, usually have other risk factors, such as liver disease, diabetes, or hepatitis.
"People who do not have health problems and who are exposed to a bacteria may feel a bit sick," she said, although it is always a good idea to avoid consume raw or undercooked shellfish.
But Doktor added that experts studying infectious diseases are not only concerned about the spread of V. vulnificus due to global warming.
"We are worried about infections that were once considered only tropical as they could now occur in warmer latitudes," she said.
A study published in March predicted that climate change is likely to affect the range and distribution of mosquitoes carrying Zika virus and dengue fever. According to this study, nearly 500 million new people could be exposed to these diseases by 2050.
USDA
mosquito Aedes aegypti zika virus bite to the blood
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase relentlessly, nearly one billion new people will be exposed to these disease-carrying mosquito species by 2080.
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