2023-09-02 15:35:57
By Erika Edwards NBC News
Hurricane Idalia is now history, but it has left behind an invisible threat: the Florida Department of Health, where the cyclone made landfall last Wednesday as a category 3, urged millions of people to go to the beach this weekend week long from Labor Day to be aware that standing water left over from the storm may contain Vibrio vulnificus.
This unusual and potentially deadly type of flesh-eating bacteria “should not be underestimated,” explained Jae Williams, press secretary for the state Department of Health, “it must be treated with the appropriate respect, just as we treat alligators and rattlesnakes.”
State authorities began warning about the threat of these bacterial infections “as soon as a state of emergency was declared” for the hurricane, Williams added. The coastal areas of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, where storm surge left standing water, are most at risk from this bacterium.
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The bacterium thrives in coves, estuaries, and other warm, brackish water areas that mix fresh and ocean water. Hurricanes are good breeding grounds for these conditions: the idalia storm surge, for example, moved salty seawater inland, where it mixed with water from heavy rains.
“Rainwater, which is sweet, dilutes in seawater and lowers its salinity,” explained James Oliver, a retired professor of microbiology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The mixture creates perfect conditions for the bacteria to thrive.
Flooding from Hurricane Idalia this Wednesday in Crystal River, Florida. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
There are several types of Vibrio. V. vulnificus is the most dangerous. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that about 80,000 people are infected each year in the United States, and about a hundred lose their lives.
Those numbers tend to go up after hurricanes.
It is a phenomenon that has been recorded in other hurricane seasons. Last year, a week before Ian hit Florida, there had been no Vibrio infections in the area where it made landfall, but in the week after there were 38 cases. Three people lost at least one leg to amputation, and 11 died. In 2005, with Katrinasimilar increases were recorded.
How do Vibrio infections occur?
The bacteria enter the bloodstream through breaks in the skin, usually in the feet or ankles when people move through the water. Already infected, the patient suffers “a small lesion that looks like a spider bite,” Oliver explained. But right away the bacteria begin to destroy the surrounding tissues. The incubation period is about 16 hours, according to the professor.
Example of the early stages of a Vibrio infection wound. In this particular case it spread rapidly and the patient died within 28 hours. Image courtesy of Elsevier. / : Elsevier 2016
The wound grows, reddens and hurts more and more. It is essential to seek medical attention and start antibiotic treatment as soon as possible. “Speed is essential, they are the fastest growing bacteria of all that we know of,” Oliver warned.
Amputation may be necessary to prevent further spread of the bacteria to the rest of the body. In some cases, there are patients who died the same day they were infected.
Eating raw oysters is the second most common way to become infected. Oysters feed by filtering water with their gills. “Realize that you are eating a live animal, and with it the contents in your intestine of what you ate, which is usually Vibrio,” explains the professor.
Hot water increases the risk of contagion
The Vibrio bacterium tends to be most active between May and October, usually in the warmer waters off the southeast coast of the United States, which includes parts of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
But infections are beginning to register before or after that period, and in more remote areas. “The possibility of catching it is increasing because it is spreading geographically and in greater numbers due to warming water,” Oliver explains.
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In August three people died in New York and Connecticut.
Afsar Ali, a researcher in the Department of Global and Environmental Health at the University of Florida, says he has noticed that infections have become more common in the last five years. “I’ve seen an increasing number of Vibrio vulnificus cases,” he said, “it’s increasing year by year.”
Climate change is increasing the risk that the bacteria will grow for another reason besides increasing warming water temperatures: “It doesn’t grow or survive in completely fresh water,” he says, “but melting glaciers are reducing the salinity of the sea water”.
Who is at greater risk?
Millions of people wade in brackish water (shallow areas that mix fresh and salt water) or eat raw oysters every year without experiencing any problems. But men over the age of 40 and those with preexisting health problems (particularly liver disease) seem more susceptible to infection. Damage to the liver increases iron levels in the blood, and the bacterium “loves to eat iron,” Ali explains, using it to “plow through tissues, destroying everything in its path.”
The risk to such people is much greater from eating raw oysters, explains Oliver, who recommends “avoiding like the plague” men over 40 with liver problems.
How to stay safe
Cooking oysters destroys bacteria, making the food a much safer option, experts say. But for beachgoers there’s no easy way to avoid the bacteria.
“It’s virtually guaranteed that if you go into coastal waters this weekend you’ll come across the bacteria,” Oliver says. “It can be scary, but it’s important to understand that the risk of getting sick is extremely low for the vast majority of people,” he adds.
Those with open wounds should cover them completely before entering brackish water areas, or avoid doing so. “If you have any type of injury to your legs or get one, you should really try to protect yourself and not be exposed to water in those cases,” says Dr. Rachel Lee, a professor in the communicable disease unit at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “If you don’t have injuries, the risk is practically zero,” she concludes.
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