|
What a Way to Go.......
|
View this Thread in Original format
| LazFX |
and just think, I go to the coast every weekend.........
| quote: | Flesh-eating bacteria at Texas beach
One man in critical condition
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, July 19, 2007
HOUSTON — A Nacogdoches man was in critical but stable condition after three surgeries aimed at saving him from a flesh-eating bacteria that infected him during a swim off the coast of Galveston County.
Steve Gilpatrick, 58, was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a tissue-destroying disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio vulnificus, when he became ill three days after swimming during a July 8 fishing trip at Crystal Beach.
Gilpatrick's physician, Dr. David Herndon, the chief of burn services and professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said Tuesday that the situation is life-threatening because the infection spread to Gilpatrick's blood.
Gilpatrick is suffering multiple organ failure, and doctors are trying to save one of his legs.
"I've heard of flesh-eating bacteria, but it always seemed so far away," said his wife, Linda. "It's not. It's here."
The Gilpatricks vacation in Galveston each summer, she said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus thrives during summer months in the Gulf of Mexico.
Swimmers with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients or people with liver disease, are most at risk. A point of entry, such as an open wound, allows the bacteria into the body.
Gilpatrick is diabetic and had an ulcer on his leg when he went swimming. His leg became infected three days later.
The CDC says most cases of Vibrio vulnificus occur along the Gulf Coast. In Texas, there were 22 cases of the infection reported in 2006, with at least seven caused by water contact, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
People can be infected by eating contaminated seafood. Raw shellfish pose the greatest risk, according to the CDC.
Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/conte.../0719flesh.html
|
>>SOURCE<< |
|
|
| Project-K |
| quote: | | Symptoms include (...) abdominal pain. |
No sherlock! |
|
|
| washout |
this happed in my city in 2005.
| quote: |
Bacteria that eats flesh kills woman
Victim was riding personal watercraft on St. Johns prior to Aug. 3 death
By CHERIE BLACK, The Times-Union
Flesh-eating bacteria from the St. Johns River caused the death of a Jacksonville woman earlier this month, Duval County health officials said Thursday.
Officials said Candace Scott, 45, died Aug. 3 after contracting the bacteria, while riding a personal watercraft along the river days earlier.
The bacteria triggered an infection that attacked the skin and destroyed the soft tissue beneath it.
People with pre-existing conditions that weaken the immune system are at the highest risk of dying from the infection, health officials said. Scott was recently diagnosed with diabetes, said her brother, Bill, who lives in Fort Lauderdale. Health officials said the bacteria most likely entered her body through an open wound.
Vibrio vulnificus flourishes in areas where fresh water and salt water mix, much like many swamp and marsh areas around Jacksonville, said Tim Lawther, director of chronic disease and prevention for the Duval County Health Department. Every year the health department sees two or three cases of the flesh-eating infection but deaths are rare, he said.
The bacterium that causes the flesh-eating infection -- known as necrotizing fasciitis -- is similar to one the public periodically is warned about when eating raw or undercooked shellfish, health officials said.
"[The bacterium] is there, it's been there forever and it will be there forever," said Michael Sands, chief of infectious diseases for the University of Florida. "Like any other times you are in the water, you simply have to take sensible precautions."
The infection takes its greatest toll on people with weakened immune systems or chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, or liver or kidney disease.
Lawther said the bacteria usually enter the body through an open wound and absorbs into the bloodstream, triggering the infection. Scott cut her leg the day she was using the personal watercraft, her brother said Thursday.
"At this point, we're not telling people to stay out of the water because of this one instance," Lawther said. "However, if you don't heal well and you have an open wound you should stay out of the water because that puts you at a higher risk."
The health department said the infection is not related to streaks of blue-green algae that have sprouted along the river. People are warned to stay away from the algae.
|
scary is i jet ski in that river once a week each summer. |
|
|
| Beat Blog |
Our secretary at work has had to cut back to 4 hour days because she picked up some virus in either Europe or Hawaii.
She needs like sixteen hours sleep a day because it's attacking her brain.
Not cool. |
|
|
| Perfect_Cheezit |
| That gets in the lakes up here. A kid died from it a couple weeks ago. |
|
|
| squats |
| its those god damn illegal aliens!!!!!! |
|
|
| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | | Vibrio vulnificus infection has a mortality rate of 50% with the majority of patients dying within the first 48 hours of infection. |
:wtf: |
|
|
| iclone |
| just reaffirms i'll never visit a texas beach. |
|
|
| Zoso |
| Great, we were thinking of hitting the Gulf Coast this autumn. Looks like I'll just sit on the beach and drink till I'm numb. :whip: |
|
|
| cheshirepk8 |
| quote: | Originally posted by iclone
just reaffirms i'll never visit a texas beach. |
That's why i like my nice cold New England Ocean.
It's frikken freezing most of the year so when I surf i wear either a dry suit or some form of body covering. Same goes for sailing. |
|
|
| Omega_M |
| that's it...imma not gona eat raw shell fish anymore :nervous: |
|
|
|
|
