WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Cases of a potentially deadly flesh-eating bacteria are on the rise, scientists say the higher cases are correlated with warmer coastal waters.
Vibrio is a type of bacteria that is found in coastal waters like oceans or rivers. People can get infected with Vibrio through an open wound or food. A report from CNN says that cases of Vibrio have increased by 620% over the last 10 years.
“There have been several studies showing an increase over the years. This is typically due to longer periods of warm waters as well as seawater intrusion in freshwater areas, making the water more brackish, which tends to be favored by some of these pathogenic bacteria,” said Blake Ushijima, an Assistant Professor for the Department of Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)…