Pinellas Logs 1st Seawater Bacteria Death of the Year

A Pinellas County resident is the 10th person to have died from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria since the year began.

The Florida Department of Health confirmed the death on its website late last week. The total number of cases this year reached 19 as of July 31 with 10 of those cases resulting in deaths. The Pinellas case is a first this year in that county. Pinellas saw four cases in 2014 with no deaths.

The Pinellas County case involved seawater exposure, the health department confirmed. The other nine deaths recorded this year have resulted from a mix of seawater exposure and exposure to raw shellfish.

“Vibrio vulnificus is a bacterium that normally lives in warm seawater,” Mara Burger, press secretary for the department of health, explained in a previous interview. “Vibrio vulnificus infections are rare.”

Burger said people can get infected with Vibrio vulnificus in one of two ways – by eating contaminated raw shellfish or through exposure to contaminated water by swimming with open wounds.

So far, this year four other cases have been reported in the Tampa Bay area. Of those four, two deaths occurred in Hillsborough County and one in Sarasota. Pasco had a case where the patient recovered, department records show. Hillsborough’s first death involved a man who was exposed to the bacteria while in Mississippi, Burger said. The second death involved seawater exposure. It is unclear how exposure occurred in the Pasco and Sarasota cases.

See Also:

• Florida Seawater Bacteria Deaths Climb to 9
• Florida’s ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria Myths Busted
• ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria Warnings Go Up in Florida
• Florida’s Flesh-Eating Bacteria: What the State Says

Here is a breakdown of the number of Tampa Bay area cases as of July 31:

• Hillsborough – 2 cases, 2 deaths
• Pasco – 1 case, no deaths
• Pinellas – 1 case, 1 death
• Sarasota – 1 case, 1 death

No cases have been reported in Manatee County in 2015.

Burger stresses the bacteria doesn’t pose risks for normally healthy people who don’t “have open cuts or wounds” who swim in Florida’s salt or brackish waters.

Vibrio vulnificus is often called the “flesh-eating” bacteria, but that’s not an entirely accurate label, Burger said. Most people who come into contact with the bacteria don’t show severe symptoms. Signs of exposure in normally healthy people include such symptoms as stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains on its website that consumption of contaminated shellfish or open-wound exposure among immunocompromised people, “particularly those with chronic liver disease can infect the bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness characterized by fever and chills, decreased blood pressure, and blistering skin lesions.”

When open wounds come in contact with Vibrio vulnificus, the CDC says infections that arise “may lead to skin breakdown and ulceration.” When that breakdown of skin tissue occurs, it’s caused by a serious complication, known as Necrotizing Fasciitis. It’s that complication that gives rise to the “flesh-eating” moniker.

“Necrotizing Fasciitis is a rare disease that can be caused by more than one type of bacteria,” Burger said. “These include group A Streptococcus (group A strep), Klebsiella, Clostridium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Aeromonas hydrophila, among others. Group A strep is considered the most common cause of necrotizing fasciitis. Vibrio vulnificus and Necrotizing Fasciitis are not one in the same.”

To find out more about the bacteria and safety measures that can be taken, visit the Florida Department of Health online.

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