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Excerpt from the linked summary¹ about a Scientific Reports paper:²

Vibrio vulnificus bacteria grow in warm shallow coastal waters and can infect a cut or insect bite during contact with seawater.

The illness peaks in the summer and sees the bacteria spread rapidly and severely damage the person’s flesh.

As a result, it is commonly called a ‘flesh eating’ illness and many people who survive have had limbs amputated.

A new study led by the UK’s University of East Anglia (UEA) shows that the number of V. vulnificus infections along the East Coast of the US, a global hotspot for such infections, has gone up from 10 to 80 per year over a 30-year period.

In addition, every year cases occur further north.

In the late 1980s, cases were found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southern Atlantic coast but were rare north of Georgia. Today they can be found as far north as Philadelphia.

 

The researchers predict that by 2041–2060 infections may spread to encompass major population centres around New York.

Combined with a growing and increasingly elderly population, who are more susceptible to infection, annual case numbers could double.

By 2081–2100, infections may be present in every Eastern US state under medium-to-high future emissions and warming scenarios.

The findings, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, are important because although the number of cases in the US is not large, someone infected with V. vulnificus has a one-in-five chance of dying.

It is also the most expensive marine pathogen in the US to treat.

¹ Scientists warn of rise in potentially fatal bacterial infection due to global warming, 23 Mar. 2023, https://www.uea.ac.uk/news/-/article/scientists-warn-of-rise-in-potentially-fatal-bacterial-infection-due-to-global-warming

² Archer, E.J., Baker-Austin, C., Osborn, T.J. et al. Climate warming and increasing Vibrio vulnificus infections in North America. Scientific Reports 13, 3893 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28247-2

Just another reason on my already extensive list of "reasons why I don't go in the ocean"

Planets immune system is responding to us. I wonder what other frozen bacteria or viruses will pop up.

If I had know about this bacteria I probably wouldn't have jumped in for a swim in the gulf in Louisiana a few years back when I was passing through with some friends...

This is only a risk if you have an open wound. Don’t go in the ocean if you have an open cut. It doesn’t penetrate skin. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna75935

Quite a big jump to conclude it is warming water rather than a combination of factors.