Victims’ families want better alerts about water bacteria

Last month, Cheryl Wiygul lost her father.

One day he was splashing in waters near Fort Walton Beach. Forty-eight hours later, he was dead — the latest apparent victim of flesh-eating bacteria that has claimed 20 lives in Florida in the past two years.

Wiygul was shocked to learn the infection could kill so quickly.

But she was also shocked to learn state officials knew this deadly bacteria was killing so many people — 20 in just the past two years — and weren’t doing much to warn others.

When sharks are spotted, coastal communities put up signs. Yet with vibrio vulnificus — a bacteria that has claimed far more lives — warnings were posted in places most people would never see them … like a page buried deep within the health department’s website.

There, health officials shared the grim and deadly statistics, warnings and even tips on how to avoid the bacteria. It’s helpful stuff. But I can’t imagine many people anyone ever saw it there. have doubled from 10 years ago.)

It thrives in brackish waters, where salt meets fresh, such as marshes chock full of oyster beds.

Oh, that’s another key detail: To avoid vibrio, the health department strongly advises against consuming raw oysters.

But all those warnings might be lost on visitors, considering I haven’t seem many tourism sites promoting alerts about flesh-eating bacteria. Instead, I found a Visit Florida piece celebrating the thrill of eating raw oysters … you know, the very thing the health department said might kill you.

It’s almost like Florida is taking public-safety lessons from the mayor of Amity in “Jaws.”

People are catching deadly diseases in our waters, and the only thing Florida wants would-be visitors to know is that “it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and people are having a wonderful time.” (“Amity, as you know, means friendship.”)

Now, at this point in the column, I feel compelled to say: There’s no need for most of us to freak out.

If you’re this deep into this column, you now know most of the things you need to know about the vibrio threat. Most important: If you discover an infection after swimming, you now know to take it seriously.

Infections are still rare. I’ll still swim. So will my kids.

But not everyone reads this column or peruses the sub-pages of the health department’s website. So, if we can share potentially life-saving information, targeted at high-risk people around high-risk bodies of water, I’m not sure why we wouldn’t want to do so.

And maybe not just signs. But publicservice announcements and online information. From what I’ve seen, the state has some good information. It’s just not doing everything it can to make sure people see it.

Health officials didn’t answer my questions about what awareness efforts they’ve made in the past or have planned for the future. Or about the petition effort, which had 1,750 signatures as of Wednesday and includes the backing of a man whose mother died after suffering a small cut on a beach in Southwest Florida.

The state has not yet updated this year’s death toll to reflect or confirm any vibrio-related deaths this year. But it did confirm 20 vibrio deaths and 92 infections over the last two years.

Considering the high count, Wiygul said the lack of warnings is almost comical.

“My Dad would have laughed, too. It’s just so absurd,” she said. “How many TV shows and movies do we watch where people are running and jumping into all sorts of different bodies of water and having some wonderful adventure?

Most don’t end with flesh-eating bacteria. People just don’t know.”