Cases of deadly flesh-eating bacteria are exploding in parts of the US

https://news.yahoo.com/cases-deadly-flesh-eating-bacteria-192800855.html

Canela López
,INSIDER•October 21, 2020

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Climate change has brought us more hurricanes in the Gulf South, record-breaking wildfires in the West, and increasingly, according to a recent report by The State, cases of deadly, flesh-eating bacteria off the coasts of the Carolinas.

The report, released on Tuesday, found infections of vibrio, a bacteria that can cause diarrhea, cramping, vomiting, and death within hours, have doubled in North Carolina and tripled in South Carolina since 2007.

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More frequent storms are creating saltier waters. Warmer weather is heating waters up. That creates the best breeding ground for vibrio, according to the Center for Oceans and Human Health and Climate Change Interactions, cited in The State's report.

As hurricane seasons grow longer, so vibrio lingers, making people on the coast of North and South Carolina more vulnerable to infection for a longer period of time.

According to scientists, the number of vibrio appears to be even worse after large storms, which are growing in number on the South-Eastern coast.

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Another microscopic threat is on the rise in warming waters: brain-eating amoebas.

Naegleria fowleri is harmless when swallowed in water, but kills its hosts when it is inhaled. Those who contract the organism only have a 3% chance of survival.

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Typically native to warmer climes, the CDC has reported at least two deaths of children in Minnesota in 2010 and 2012, "550 miles north" of the last reported case in North, South, and Central America.

"There is concern if waters continue to warm in northern states there may be more of a risk to people who go in water in those states," CDC epidemiologist Jonathan Yoder told Insider's Shira Feder.