Health officials in Louisiana are warning people at home and abroad to be more cautious when entering the waters of the coast, as infection rates from Vibrio vulnificussometimes known as flesh eating bacteriaare soaring. Nine have been diagnosed so far in the year, five of them resulting in death. All nine of the patients ended up being hospitalized.
This is a significant increase from the decadal average of seven cases and one death earlier in the decade. All of the 2026 identified cases have been traced to open wounds exposed to seawater, and health officials have stated that all of the patients had preexisting conditions which increased the risk of serious illness. Vibrio vulnificus naturally inhabits warm coastal waters and brackish waters, the intermingling of salty seas and freshwater (estuaries and lagoons).
New cases tend to peak from May to October as water temperatures increase and V. vulnificus becomes more prevalent. Infection can be contracted through ingestion of uncooked or undercooked shellfish (most Worth noting oysters), but the cases reported in Louisiana this year are traceable to wound contact with seawater. It can be rapidly progressive. In severe untreated illness it causes necrotizing fasciitis, a rapidly progressive, destructive infection of the tissue under the skin. One fifth of all people who acquire a Vibrio vulnificus infection die, often within a couple of days of developing the infection.
Symptoms may include fever chills hypotension, and red swollen painful, warm or discolored skin around a break in the skin. Anyone noticing these changes after contact with seawater should seek medical attention promptly, informing the doctor of the source of water. The most susceptible groups are individuals with compromised immune systems including those with cancer, liver disease, HIV, or diabetes, as well as those on acid reduction therapy and those recently recovering from stomach surgery. Healthy persons are not immune to infection but will not develop the serious complications these groups experience.1 Also, the Louisiana Department of Health is recommending certain precautions to everyone. Those with an open wound cut scrape, surgical incision, or piercing should stay out of salt or brackish water.
If unavoidable, wounds should be covered with a waterproof bandage. Wash any wound or exposed area thoroughly with soap and fresh water. This warning comes during the height of the summer recreation season on the Gulf Coast. The warm waters attract crowds to beaches, fishing and boating, but the water’s setting is just as attractive to bacteria. Its emergence in other states this year, like Florida, where deaths have been reported as well, is also cause for alarm. Scientists have noted that in the past few years, warmer coastal waters seem to be expanding the latitude and the duration of Vibrio’s presence, but this season’s Louisiana cases are confined to the standard high-risk months for the state.