Infections with a type of “flesh-eating” bacterium might increase significantly in the coming decades, according to a new study. The one in the journal Scientific Reports published study has dealt with the favored spread of organisms in new coastal areas due to climate change.
Warmer sea causes spread
Vibrio injurious, as the type of bacteria is called, can become an acute health risk following a swim in the sea. The bacteria thrive in warm (increasingly over 20 degrees) and shallow coastal waters, and infections typically peak in the summer months. Humans can become infected through cuts and other skin injuries that come in contact with seawater.
Vibrio injurious damages the meat in the course of infection – with sometimes drastic consequences. One in five cases is fatal, with many surviving only through amputation to remove the dead area. Infection is rapid: most deaths occur within 48 hours of exposure. If the bacteria get into the body through drinking or eating, they usually cause harmless diarrhea.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed infections from 1988 to 2018, focusing on reported cases along the East Coast, considered a global hotspot for such infections. The study found that the number of infections increased from 10 to 80 cases per year in 30 years. And that the cases appeared in new regions.
Elizabeth Archer, lead author of the study, said that infections in the late 1980s were predominant in the Gulf Coast states and areas along the southern Atlantic coast: “But rarely north of Georgia. Now the upper limit of our range is near Philadelphia.”
The “flesh-eating” bacterium has also been found once more and once more in the German Baltic Sea in recent years. In 2005, 60 cases were registered, with the course increasing every year. In 2021, a person died following a swim in the Baltic Sea in which they took a bath Vibrionen infected.