Man Infected With Flesh Eating Bacteria While Swimming In The Sea Off Texas

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Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Diabetes;  Immune System / Vaccines;  Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 19 Jul 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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A 58 year old man who swam in the sea while on holiday in Galveston, Texas, risks losing a leg, and maybe his life, after being infected by the flesh-eating bacterium Vibrio vulnificus.

The Houston Chronicle said yesterday that Steve Gilpatrick, a retired oil marketing consultant has had three operations and faces multiple organ failure. Gilpatrick has necrotizing fasciitis, a tissue destroying disease caused by the bacteria and his blood is also infected. He is stable but in a critical condition.

According to the National Institutes of Health, necrotizing fasciitis, also known as necrotizing soft-tissue infection, is a severe form of tissue infection that occurs on the skin, subcutaneous fat, the muscle sheath (fascia), and the muscle. It can lead to gangrene, tissue death, systemic disease, and death.

The ideal environment for V. vulnificus is warm salt water, such as that provided by the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas during the summer.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), V. vulnificus is a rare cause of disease, but they suspect it is underreported. Between 1998 and 1995, they received 300 reports of infection by the bacterium, all from the Gulf coast states where the majority of cases occur.

People most vulnerable to infection by the flesh-eating bacteria are those who have weakened immune systems, for instance people with chronic liver disease or people undergoing chemotherapy. The CDC says that a recent study showed that people who already had a medical condition of some kind were 80 times more likely to become infected than healthy people.

Eating raw seafood, particularly oysters, is the most common route to infection. But it can also enter the bloodstream through open or unhealed wounds when swimming in seawater.

Gilpatrick is diabetic, and had an unhealed wound on his upper leg when he swam in the sea during a fishing expedition on the 8th of July, his wife Linda Gilpatrick told the Houston Chronicle. Three days later his leg was infected and he had a high fever.

A specialist in infectious diseases from Houston's Baylor College of Medicine told the newspaper that healthy swimmers shouldn't be worried and don't need to stop swimming because of this. But anyone with chronic conditions such as diabetics, or who are taking steroids, or who have cancer or liver disease should not go in the sea during the summer if they have open sores or wounds, he said.

John Sealy Hospital in Galveston where Gilpatrick is being treated sees about three cases of infection by V. vulnificus a year. The doctor who is treating Gilpatrick also works at the University of Texas and said he saw about one case a month of necrotizing fasciitis. The flesh-eating disease is caused by several bacteria, not just V. vulnificus, he said.

Last year there were 54 cases of V. Vulnificus infection in Texas, according to health authorities, of which at least 16 were due to contact with water.

Linda Gilpatrick told the Houston Chronicle she wants to spread the word about this disease.

"I've heard of flesh-eating bacteria, but it always seemed so far away," she said, but it's not she said, "It's here."

Click here for more information about Vibrio vulnificus (CDC).

Click here for more information about necrotizing fasciitis or necrotizing soft tissue infection. (MedlinePlus).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today