Person dies after contact with rare bacterium

Flesh-eating Vibrio is found in brackish or warm saltwater

A Virginia resident has died of an infection involving a waterborne bacterium that eats flesh.

The person came into contact with the f lesh-eating Vibrio bacterium. Virginia Department of Health officials weren’t releasing the person’s name or other details about the resident, citing privacy laws.

Katherine McCombs, a foodborne disease epidemiology program coordinator at the state’s Department of Health, said the person died from a Vibrio infection. She said she couldn’t say when the person died or came into contact with the bacterium. She said it happened in the health department’s eastern region, which includes the Hampton Roads area.

So far this year, 23 people in Virginia have contracted illnesses tied to Vibrio, according to health officials, which is up slightly from last year. The death is the first this year in Virginia.

Vibrio is a naturally occurring bacterium found in brackish or warm salt waters that can cause serious infections. The most common species that cause illness in Virginia are “vibrio parahaemolyticus” and “vibrio vulnificus,” according to health officials.

The person who died in Virginia suffered an infection from the vibrio vulnificus bacterium. It is more rare and is often under-reported, according to the state’s health department. Vibrio vulnificus is more often found in states along the Gulf Coast. In Virginia, there are typically fewer than 10 cases reported each year, according to state health officials.

With vibrio vulnificus illnesses, a person typically becomes infected if they have a cut or open wound exposed to brackish water that becomes contaminated with the bacterium. Symptoms include redness around the wound, swelling at the cut area, fever, tiredness and generally “feeling poorly,” McCombs said.

In New Jersey, a man who had been crabbing near the Delaware Bay died earlier this month from a Vibrio infection. The family of Angel Perez said he made several trips to a hospital’s emergency room with redness and blistering on his legs. It was later discovered that Vibrio bacterium had found its way into a cut or open sore on his leg.

Doctors had at one point mistakenly diagnosed Perez as having a minor bacterial infection, his family said. Another time, it was thought to be cellulitis. Eventually, the infection spread and was in all four limbs.

The other type, parahaemolyticus, is more common in Virginia. One can become infected after eating raw or undercooked shellfish.