Man Dies After Contracting Rare Bacteria While Swimming in Gulf Coast Beach in Florida
A 26-year-old man recently died after contracting a rare, deadly bacterial infection while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa, officials confirmed today.
The victim, Cason Yeager, who is from Lake County, died on June 16, only two days after he went swimming, his mother Karen Yeager told local station WTSP .
"This has been a nightmare for me, to say the least, and nobody should have to go through this," Karen Yeager said, adding she wants to spread awareness that even healthy people can fall victim to the bacteria that killed her son -- Vibrio vulnificus.
Georgia Woman's 'Long Road to Recovery' From Flesh-Eating Bacteria Mom Says She Lost Sight in One Eye Just 12 Hours After Mud Run Texas Officials Liken Gulf of Mexico Bacteria Levels to Toilet WaterYeager's death is Florida's fourth Vibrio vulnificus fatality this year, Florida Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Burger told ABC News today, adding that his death comes after a previous warning the department made about the bacteria.
Vibrio vulnificus is a naturally occurring bacteria that is a bit more active in the summer, according to Anne Gayle Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health in Hernando County.
The bacteria is often incorrectly referred to as "flesh-eating" bacteria, Ellis told ABC News. However, the bacterium can cause infections that may lead to skin breakdown, ulceration and possible fatal complications in immunocompromised people, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) .
Karen Yeager told WTSP her son seemed healthy. Now, she said she wants people to be aware of the dangers in the water.
"I'm not telling anyone don't go into the water," Karen Yeager said. "Just do your due diligence and make sure that you're not going to harm yourself."
LINK :
https://gma.yahoo.com/man-dies-contracting-rare-bacteria-while-swimming-gulf-235653851--abc-news-travel.html
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I don't know why my tags are not showing in the article . This is a little known danger of warm water swimming .
Dang nasty little critter, and prefers men...
~LINK~
Nice seed Petey. Good information.
Theoretically they could give estrogen shots to males [if they get the patients before its too late] . Is that likely to work ?
Yes, good information.
According to the link in the wiki footnotes , they have demonstrated inanimals that that would indeed help. Though they have an understanding of the pathway and such, they actualy don't know how estrogen does what it does.
Estrogen has been mystifying men throughout history ...
LOL, yeah, no kidding...
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The Freaky Fish-Borne Illness You've Never Heard Of
A new study published in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found that poisoning from ciguatera , a toxin that can make you sick when you eat certain types of fish, is 28 times more common than previous data suggests. The most recent estimate from the state of Florida found that one out of every 500,000 residents becomes sick from ciguatera poisoning each year, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 2 to 10 percent of ciguatera cases are actually reported in the U.S.
Ciguatera is found in algae that grows in warm water and its eaten by some plant-eating fish, as well as the carnivorous fish that eat them. Barracuda is the most likely to carry ciguatera, says Felicia Wu, PhD, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University,but it also can show up in more common fish we eat like grouper, snapper, mackerel, and mahimahi.
For the study, scientists analyzed nearly 300 reports in Florida from 2000 to 2011 and conducted an email survey of 5,352 fishermen to estimate how often ciguatera poisoning occurs and where its located. While they discovered that ciguatera poisoning happens the most in people who fish near Miami, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas, if you eat food from those regions, you run the risk of contracting it.
I added the above comment to demonstrate that Vibrio vulnificus is not the only danger in warm water activities . I'm surprised to see that so few people are interested in their health ...
I wonder if this news could have the same effect on tourism as "Jaws" could have had fictionally.
It could if NT readership was extensive enough . But this applies almost exclusively to the summer season ...