Florida Man Contracts Flesh Eating Bacteria Without Touching Water

[Simone411]

Just a reminder to be careful this summer in regards to the warm ocean waters and also about eating raw seafood like oysters. I've known about our rivers, lakes, oceans carrying Necrotizing Fasciitis ever since I contracted it in April of 2011.

I had never heard of the flesh eating bacteria before until I contracted it. While I was in ICU at LSU Hospital, my doctors told me about a woman that had contracted the flesh eating bacteria after cleaning a catfish that she caught from the Red River in Shreveport. She was the first patient they had ever treated at LSU. I was the second patient that they had treated, and this was a month before I arrived at LSU.

The woman's index finger was cut by a fin while she was cleaning the catfish. The flesh eating bacteria was all over the catfish that she caught from the Red River. The catfish was covered with the flesh eating bacteria because it was in the Red River.

My doctors told me that they had to amputate the woman's arms and legs hoping it would save her life. She died a month later; exactly one month before I was admitted to LSU.

It seems to be happening more often, and my brother called me around August of 2018 regarding what he had seen on our local news. I wished I would have seen the news, but I missed it. From what was reported, there were several people that had contracted Necrotizing Fasciitis in Maine after swimming in the beach waters. Six of those people died from it.

Today, I found this news a man getting the flesh eating bacteria called Vibrio after eating raw or undercooked seafood. Usually the infection occurs after exposing a wound (even a small cut) to seawater.

Florida Man Contracts Flesh Eating Bacteria Without Touching Water

Tyler King was at work in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, last week when his left arm starting to swell, according to CBS News. He took Benadryl to try to calm the reaction, but was later rushed to the emergency room after his arm had swelled to nearly triple its size in just a few hours.

Doctors found that King — who owns a water sports business but says he did not directly touch the water that day — contracted vibrio.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “People with vibriosis become infected by consuming raw or undercooked seafood or exposing a wound to seawater. Most infections occur from May through October when water temperatures are warmer.”

Another horrific story in the same article is about a woman that dies from the flesh eating bacteria after eating oysters. There was also a mom from Maryland that posted on Facebook about her son getting Necrotizing Fasciitis after swimming in Sinepuxent Bay near Ocean City.

Exactly one year after I had Necrotizing Fasciitis, a friend of mine contracted the disease from Sabine River in Logansport. He had went skiing in the river. He had a small cut on his upper leg, and the bacteria entered his wound. He was lucky like I was. He didn't lose his leg, but the majority of his flesh on the back of his leg had to be debrided. That's exactly what happened to me.

I know this may be lengthy, but it's happening more often. People don't stop to realize that our waters like the lakes, rivers and oceans now have the flesh eating bacteria, and seafood and fish are covered with that bacteria because of it.

Please be safe this summer, and please don't get in the water if you have a small cut or wound. Wait until it gets well.

 

[skatesindreams]

Thanks for this sad; yet necessary - reminder, Angie.

 

[Katesk8sgr8s]

Wow! I did not know this.

 

[Garden Kitty]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this disease!

 

[Jay42]

Flesh eating bacteria isn't the only thing carried in puddles. I got a minor case of cellulitis this past spring because I was careless walking through puddles with boots that weren't properly sealed. I was lucky, this time I was able to do an oral antibiotic for 10 days, the first 3 times I had it between 2016 and 2017 I was off work for at least 2 weeks and on IV antibiotics. I also have a lot of skin sensitivities in the aftermath of the first skin infection that I did not have before.

I have a lot of friends who work in various fields of medicine as well who've told me that even my worst case of the skin infection was not the worst they've seen it get. I was lucky because I got to the hospital fairly quickly.

 

[missing]

I am not asking this frivolously. Does this mean I should stop eating sashimi?

 

[Buzz]

Thanks for sharing @Simone411!

 

[rfisher]

I am not asking this frivolously. Does this mean I should stop eating sashimi?

Since you don't know the source of the sea food, use your best judgement. The pollution in the oceans, lakes and rivers is reaching a tipping point for human health.

 

[Simone411]

Flesh eating bacteria isn't the only thing carried in puddles. I got a minor case of cellulitis this past spring because I was careless walking through puddles with boots that weren't properly sealed. I was lucky, this time I was able to do an oral antibiotic for 10 days, the first 3 times I had it between 2016 and 2017 I was off work for at least 2 weeks and on IV antibiotics. I also have a lot of skin sensitivities in the aftermath of the first skin infection that I did not have before.

I have a lot of friends who work in various fields of medicine as well who've told me that even my worst case of the skin infection was not the worst they've seen it get. I was lucky because I got to the hospital fairly quickly.

Thank goodness you did. You made me think of the Houston Flood caused from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. There was a rescuer that got his arm infected and nearly died with the flesh eating bacteria while he was saving people in those flood waters. Necrotizing Fasciitis was just one of the types of bacteria in those flood waters.

Sewage, Fecal Bacteria in Hurricane Harvey Flood Waters.

Flood waters caused from any Hurricane are contaminated and dangerous.

 

[ballettmaus]

I suddenly lost my desire to spend any time at (Florida) beaches. These kind of things freak me out.

 

[Simone411]

I suddenly lost my desire to spend any time at (Florida) beaches. These kind of things freak me out.

Just use your judgment. If you don't have any small cuts or open wounds on your body, you should be okay. Just don't take a chance if you do have a cut or small open wound because the bacteria thrives in warm waters including the gulf in the summertime.

 

[sk8nlizard]

Y’all have officially freaked me out!my kids are on a summer swim team (indoors at a nataorium) and swim multiple times a week. My oldest has had a series of unfortunate events that have left him with all kinds of scrapes, cuts and a toe nail removal! Now I am worried about his getting in the pool! We are also supposed to go tubing on a river near Pigeon Forge TN in 2 weeks......yikes!

 

[Jay42]

Pool water is treated to make it safe to swim in.

 

[Simone411]

Y’all have officially freaked me out!my kids are on a summer swim team (indoors at a nataorium) and swim multiple times a week. My oldest has had a series of unfortunate events that have left him with all kinds of scrapes, cuts and a toe nail removal! Now I am worried about his getting in the pool! We are also supposed to go tubing on a river near Pigeon Forge TN in 2 weeks......yikes!

I agree with @Nell411. The pool water is treated and should be safer to swim in. However, the river water is warmer since it's Summer. This is the time of the year that the flesh-eating bacteria and other types thrive the most. If your oldest has all those scrapes and cuts including a toenail removal, I truly don't believe it would be safe for him to go tubing.

My friend that ended up with NF (Necrotizing Fasciitis) after skiing in the Sabine River had a small pimple on his left butt cheek. That's where the NF entered. The bacteria went down his leg but could have easily went up his body. He lost a lot of flesh on his butt cheek all the way down to just below his knee.

Regarding me. The NF entered a small open wound or cut (it was smaller than an eraser on a pencil) that was almost healed just below my left butt cheek. I didn't even know what NF was. I had been to the Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City with my family. The flesh-eating bacteria was on the buttons of the slot machines, etc. and it was on the coins and money. Sometime during that day, I accidentally touched the cut with my finger and the NF was on my finger after touching all of those slot machines and money.

That's how it entered my wound. NF isn't just in our waters like the lakes, oceans and rivers. It's on most anything we touch in the public. It's transferred by people after they touch things like doors to department stores, grocery stores or anywhere public that we go. People are actually carriers of the NF. It's left on things that are touched in public where there's a lot of people.

This is why department stores stopped letting people use sample lipstick, foundations, powder, etc. They now give out unopened samples that have never been touched by human hands.

The first thing that I do when I get home is wash my hands immediately. I don't always use antibacterial soap, either, because the antibacterial soap also kills the good bacteria that we have to fight against germs. I believe this is why more and more people are getting the diseases because the antibacterial soaps not only kill the bad bacteria, but they also kill the good bacteria.

I never heard of this disease growing up in the 60's and early 70's. Us kids including my neighborhood friends played with scratches and scrapes on us, and we even made mud pies. You never heard of a kid getting NF back then, and I truly believe it was because there was no such thing as antibacterial soap back then.

Our bodies were more immune because we used soaps like Ivory Soap, Dial, etc. Those weren't antibacterial, and therefore, we still had the good bacteria in our immune systems.

 

[judiz]

This is one of my biggest fears, I have really bad eczema and my entire body is covered with open sores from scratching - apparently I scratch in my sleep. I am terrified of catching something if I go to the beach, even if I don’t swim.

 

[MacMadame]

Our bodies were more immune because we used soaps like Ivory Soap, Dial, etc. Those weren't antibacterial, and therefore, we still had the good bacteria in our immune systems.

Actually all soap is anti-bacterial. In that all soaps will remove bacteria from whatever it is you are washing.

[The definition of anti-bacterial is "active against bacteria" so soap qualifies.]

The ones labeled specifically "anti-bacterial" have extra ingredients designed to kill even more bacteria. But regular soap gets rid of 82-98% of bacteria already and antibacterial soaps do no better in tests.

There is also a fear that they will let resistant bacteria remain and those will become super-bacteria (as you mention) but as far as I can tell, that isn't proven either. It's just a theory. But it's part of why the FDA banned most of the ingredients commonly found in "antibacterial" soaps (from soaps only).

Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item - Science in the News

by Gabriel W. Rangel figures by Michael Gerhardt How many times per day do you wash your hands? Do you ever think about the type of soap you use? We all know handwashing with soap is an impactful way to maintain health by decreasing the risk of becoming infected with one germ or another...

sitn.hms.harvard.edu

.

There are still a few out there but the FDA has challenged them to prove their ingredients really do better than regular soap and I doubt they can so I figure they'll be banned from use in soaps eventually.

 

[Simone411]

Actually all soap is anti-bacterial. In that all soaps will remove bacteria from whatever it is you are washing.

[The definition of anti-bacterial is "active against bacteria" so soap qualifies.]

The ones labeled specifically "anti-bacterial" have extra ingredients designed to kill even more bacteria. But regular soap gets rid of 82-98% of bacteria already and antibacterial soaps do no better in tests.

There is also a fear that they will let resistant bacteria remain and those will become super-bacteria (as you mention) but as far as I can tell, that isn't proven either. It's just a theory. But it's part of why the FDA banned most of the ingredients commonly found in "antibacterial" soaps (from soaps only).

Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item - Science in the News

by Gabriel W. Rangel figures by Michael Gerhardt How many times per day do you wash your hands? Do you ever think about the type of soap you use? We all know handwashing with soap is an impactful way to maintain health by decreasing the risk of becoming infected with one germ or another...

sitn.hms.harvard.edu

.

There are still a few out there but the FDA has challenged them to prove their ingredients really do better than regular soap and I doubt they can so I figure they'll be banned from use in soaps eventually.

Thanks for sharing the article. Well, I feel that at least I'm doing something right by washing my hands with plain soap. I see where triclosan was banned, but things like toothpaste still have it.

This is from the article you shared, @MacMadame.

Nonetheless, there are still consumer uses for triclosan that have been proven extremely beneficial, and these are not banned by the FDA. For instance, toothpaste with triclosan has been shown to significantly reduce plaque formation, cavity formation and gingivitis compared to toothpaste without triclosan. Additionally, there are some antibacterial additives in soaps that are not subject to the FDA’s recent ruling. Many companies have replaced the banned ingredients, like triclosan, with one of these three not banned ingredients, and the FDA has granted these companies another year to demonstrate these additives are safe and effective.

“Handwashing is like a do-it-yourself vaccine,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Washing with plain soap and water has been shown to reduce bacterial presence on hands by 82%, and studies upon studies point to the beneficial health impacts of washing with plain soap. Clearly the chemical properties of plain soap and its tendency for increasing handwashing time are enough to dramatically increase the health of consumers without adding antibacterial compounds. So, while the FDA has banned household soaps containing many common antibacterial ingredients, handwashing with plain soap will remain a cornerstone of public health and should continue to be a major part of your daily hygiene.

 

[Vash01]

Just a reminder to be careful this summer in regards to the warm ocean waters and also about eating raw seafood like oysters. I've known about our rivers, lakes, oceans carrying Necrotizing Fasciitis ever since I contracted it in April of 2011.

I had never heard of the flesh eating bacteria before until I contracted it. While I was in ICU at LSU Hospital, my doctors told me about a woman that had contracted the flesh eating bacteria after cleaning a catfish that she caught from the Red River in Shreveport. She was the first patient they had ever treated at LSU. I was the second patient that they had treated, and this was a month before I arrived at LSU.

The woman's index finger was cut by a fin while she was cleaning the catfish. The flesh eating bacteria was all over the catfish that she caught from the Red River. The catfish was covered with the flesh eating bacteria because it was in the Red River.

My doctors told me that they had to amputate the woman's arms and legs hoping it would save her life. She died a month later; exactly one month before I was admitted to LSU.

It seems to be happening more often, and my brother called me around August of 2018 regarding what he had seen on our local news. I wished I would have seen the news, but I missed it. From what was reported, there were several people that had contracted Necrotizing Fasciitis in Maine after swimming in the beach waters. Six of those people died from it.

Today, I found this news a man getting the flesh eating bacteria called Vibrio after eating raw or undercooked seafood. Usually the infection occurs after exposing a wound (even a small cut) to seawater.

Florida Man Contracts Flesh Eating Bacteria Without Touching Water



Another horrific story in the same article is about a woman that dies from the flesh eating bacteria after eating oysters. There was also a mom from Maryland that posted on Facebook about her son getting Necrotizing Fasciitis after swimming in Sinepuxent Bay near Ocean City.

Exactly one year after I had Necrotizing Fasciitis, a friend of mine contracted the disease from Sabine River in Logansport. He had went skiing in the river. He had a small cut on his upper leg, and the bacteria entered his wound. He was lucky like I was. He didn't lose his leg, but the majority of his flesh on the back of his leg had to be debrided. That's exactly what happened to me.

I know this may be lengthy, but it's happening more often. People don't stop to realize that our waters like the lakes, rivers and oceans now have the flesh eating bacteria, and seafood and fish are covered with that bacteria because of it.

Please be safe this summer, and please don't get in the water if you have a small cut or wound. Wait until it gets well.

Thank you for sharing. I don’t eat seafood, but I will be careful near water.

 

[Japanfan]

This is one of my biggest fears, I have really bad eczema and my entire body is covered with open sores from scratching - apparently I scratch in my sleep. I am terrified of catching something if I go to the beach, even if I don’t swim.

I have eczema too. You need some cream, as you probably know and do. I use an over-the-counter med with hydrocortisone in. I've used prescription cream in the past, and it's worked better, and I don't think it's that common these days. I asked a doc for it once, and he wasn't familiar with it.

 

[MacMadame]

I have eczema too. You need some cream, as you probably know and do. I use an over-the-counter med with hydrocortisone in. I've used prescription cream in the past, and it's worked better, and I don't think it's that common these days. I asked a doc for it once, and he wasn't familiar with it.

According to my TV, it seems that today eczema is treated with biologics. That is pills and such.

 

[Judy]

Just a reminder to be careful this summer in regards to the warm ocean waters and also about eating raw seafood like oysters. I've known about our rivers, lakes, oceans carrying Necrotizing Fasciitis ever since I contracted it in April of 2011.

I had never heard of the flesh eating bacteria before until I contracted it. While I was in ICU at LSU Hospital, my doctors told me about a woman that had contracted the flesh eating bacteria after cleaning a catfish that she caught from the Red River in Shreveport. She was the first patient they had ever treated at LSU. I was the second patient that they had treated, and this was a month before I arrived at LSU.

The woman's index finger was cut by a fin while she was cleaning the catfish. The flesh eating bacteria was all over the catfish that she caught from the Red River. The catfish was covered with the flesh eating bacteria because it was in the Red River.

My doctors told me that they had to amputate the woman's arms and legs hoping it would save her life. She died a month later; exactly one month before I was admitted to LSU.

It seems to be happening more often, and my brother called me around August of 2018 regarding what he had seen on our local news. I wished I would have seen the news, but I missed it. From what was reported, there were several people that had contracted Necrotizing Fasciitis in Maine after swimming in the beach waters. Six of those people died from it.

Today, I found this news a man getting the flesh eating bacteria called Vibrio after eating raw or undercooked seafood. Usually the infection occurs after exposing a wound (even a small cut) to seawater.

Florida Man Contracts Flesh Eating Bacteria Without Touching Water



Another horrific story in the same article is about a woman that dies from the flesh eating bacteria after eating oysters. There was also a mom from Maryland that posted on Facebook about her son getting Necrotizing Fasciitis after swimming in Sinepuxent Bay near Ocean City.

Exactly one year after I had Necrotizing Fasciitis, a friend of mine contracted the disease from Sabine River in Logansport. He had went skiing in the river. He had a small cut on his upper leg, and the bacteria entered his wound. He was lucky like I was. He didn't lose his leg, but the majority of his flesh on the back of his leg had to be debrided. That's exactly what happened to me.

I know this may be lengthy, but it's happening more often. People don't stop to realize that our waters like the lakes, rivers and oceans now have the flesh eating bacteria, and seafood and fish are covered with that bacteria because of it.

Please be safe this summer, and please don't get in the water if you have a small cut or wound. Wait until it gets well.

I haven’t heard anything for a while but it is a very good reminder. i am so glad you pulled through. It must have been a terrifying experience.

 

[Japanfan]

According to my TV, it seems that today eczema is treated with biologics. That is pills and such.

Surprised my doctor didn't tell me about it - I'll ask next time I talk to a doctor.

 

[MacMadame]

Surprised my doctor didn't tell me about it - I'll ask next time I talk to a doctor.

Just don't tell him you heard about via Dr. TV.

 

[skatingguy]

According to my TV, it seems that today eczema is treated with biologics. That is pills and such.

Was the TV turned on at the time?