Flesh-Eating Bacteria Kills Fifth Person in Louisiana

Louisiana just lost its fifth person this year to flesh-eating bacteria. And before you think this is some rare thing that won't affect you - cases are showing up as far north as Massachusetts now.

The bacteria's called Vibrio vulnificus. It lives in warm coastal water and has about a 20% kill rate. That means one in five people who get infected die from it. The CDC calls it necrotizing fasciitis, which basically means it eats your flesh.

Here's How You Get It:

You can get it one of two ways - either through open wounds touching contaminated water or eating raw seafood like oysters. Two of the Louisiana deaths this year were from people eating raw oysters. The latest victim hasn't been identified, and officials aren't saying how they got infected.

Now for the really concerning part. Louisiana normally sees about seven infections and one death per year from this bacterium. This year there’s been twenty-six cases and five deaths. That's not a small uptick - that's something going seriously wrong.

Why Cases Are Increasing

Dr. Fred Lopez from LSU Health thinks he knows what's happening. "It's not just a Gulf Coast phenomenon any longer," he said. "Global warming is moving infections with Vibrio vulnificus up the East Coast."

The warming oceans are basically giving these bacteria a highway to spread north. What used to be a Deep South problem is becoming everybody's problem.

Alabama's recorded 10 cases this year. Mississippi has three, with one death. Florida's been hit worst - 13 cases with eight people dead. That's more deaths from bacteria than some hurricanes cause.

Some oyster beds are already being shut down because of contamination. Think about that for a second. The Gulf Coast economy runs on seafood. Oyster bars, fishing boats, seafood restaurants - they're all watching their livelihood become potentially deadly.

A Year-Round Threat

The bacteria thrive from May through October when water's warmest. But with oceans heating up, that dangerous window keeps getting longer. A summer problem might turn into a year-round threat.

If you eat contaminated seafood, you'll get the usual food poisoning symptoms - vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain. But if this bacterium gets in through a cut, it’s a different story. The skin around the wound starts breaking down and dying. And it moves really fast.

People with weak immune systems, liver disease, or diabetes are especially vulnerable. But even healthy people can die from this. There's no playing the odds here.

State health officials are trying not to panic anyone while also warning people. Don't eat raw oysters if you have health conditions. Don't swim with open wounds. If you get cut in the water, get out immediately and clean it thoroughly.

But telling people in Louisiana not to eat raw oysters? Good luck with that. It's like telling Italians to skip the pasta. Raw oyster bars are everywhere down there. People have been eating them for generations without thinking twice.

Restaurant owners are stuck in an impossible spot. Warn customers and potentially kill your business or stay quiet and potentially expose someone to this deadly bacterium. Nobody wants to be the place that served the deadly oysters.

Here's What's Really Messed Up:

Climate scientists predicted exactly this. They said warming oceans wouldn't just mean stronger hurricanes. They'd mean diseases spreading to new places, affecting people who never had to worry about them before.

Louisiana's already been through enough. Hurricanes, oil spills, the coast literally disappearing - and now the water's trying to kill them with bacteria too.

The health department keeps calling it "an increase" in cases. But when you go from one death a year to five? That's not an increase. That's an outbreak. That's a problem that's getting worse, not better.

Nobody wants to say what everyone's thinking: this is probably just how it's going to be now. Oceans keep warming, bacteria keep spreading, therefore more people keep dying.

Five dead in Louisiana. Eight in Florida. More cases spreading north every year. At some point we need to stop calling these isolated incidents and admit we've got a real problem spreading up the East Coast.

And it's only September. Peak seasons not even over yet.