Five people in Louisiana have died in 2025 from a flesh-eating bacterium found in warm coastal waters, substantially exceeding the annual average on such deaths, state officials have said.
Those who had died from contracting Vibrio vulnificus as of Wednesday were among at least 26 to be infected with the bacterium, with each case resulting in hospitalization, according to Louisiana’s department of health. Most of those cases – 85% – involved wounds being exposed to seawater, and 92% of the infected had one underlying health condition, the health department said.
Over the previous decade, Louisiana has registered an average of 10 Vibrio infections and a single death, state health department officials said.
The higher numbers in Louisiana come after scientific researchers have warned of evidence that Vibrio infections are becoming more common amid rising sea surface temperatures associated with the climate crisis – which has primarily been spurred by human emissions of greenhouse gases.
Vibrio bacteria flourish in warm coastal waters and proliferate between May and October. Infections can result from exposing an open wound to seawater or from consuming seafood that is either raw or undercooked.
About one in five people who contract Vibrio vulnificus in particular die – occasionally within two days of feeling sick from the infection. Those who do survive such an infection on occasion require limb amputation or intensive care.
The story of one man who grew up in New Orleans, and died after contracting Vibrio vulnificus in July in nearby Bay St Louis, Mississippi, vividly illustrated the dangers of the bacterium to the public in the region.
Basil Kennedy, 77, evidently contracted the bacterium after scraping his leg on a boat trailer, his daughter told the Louisiana news station WVUE. Kennedy reportedly cleaned and bandaged the wound, and he avoided getting into the water, thinking nothing more of it. But in about three days, his health sharply declined, and he died, his daughter said.
Kay Kennedy Regimbal told the station “there doesn’t need to be fear of the water” despite her father’s death – but she added that “there really needs to be an education and an understanding of how to be prepared for a situation where you may be exposed or there is a potential risk”.
Symptoms of Vibrio infection can include gastrointestinal illness, an unusually severe wound or – as associated with bloodstream infection – fever, blistering and dangerously low blood pressure.
The US usually reports about 150 to 200 cases of Vibrio vulnificus a year. About half of those cases occur in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Louisiana officials said the most cases and deaths have been in their state and Florida.
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