SARASOTA, Fla. (WSVN) — Florida health officials say a man in Sarasota has died from a bacterial infection after eating a bad oyster.
The Florida Department of Health tells Fox 13 the 71-year-old man died on July 10 of Vibrio vulnificus after consuming a bad oyster at a restaurant two days earlier. The name of the restaurant was not released.
The department’s website says it is the third fatal case of Vibrio in Florida this year.
Vibrio vulnificus is a naturally occurring bacteria that resides in warm, brackish seawater. While infections are rare, people can contract the bacteria by eating contaminated raw shellfish, or by exposing open wounds such as cuts or scrapes to water. Those with compromised immune systems are especially vulnerable.
Vibrio is sometimes referred to as a flesh-eating bacteria because of skin lesions that can spread in the body if the infection enters the bloodstream, but officials say the term is a misnomer.
“The words flesh-eating might make you think that if you touch it, it will degrade your skin on contact, and that’s not true,” Gabby Barbarite, PhD, a Vibrio researcher at FAU, told Health magazine. “You have to have a pre-existing cut—or you have to eat raw, contaminated seafood or chug a whole lot of contaminated water—for it to get into your bloodstream; it can’t break down healthy, intact skin.”
For more information on the bacteria, click here.
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