Public-health authorities say the number of infections and deaths in Florida this year from vibrio vulnificus is not out of the ordinary, but the primary mode of transmission seems to have changed, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
While the bacterial ailment is usually contracted through eating contaminated raw shellfish, officials say, this year healthy adults are dying after wading or swimming in saltwater -- apparently through small scrapes in the skin.
This year there have been 32 cases and 10 deaths. The latest case, reported by the Escambia County Health Department, involved 53-year-old Duane Reynolds. His mother Jo Reynolds said he had not eaten oysters in over a year.
The story offers five tips to avoid infection.