The Rising Tide of a Deadly Bacteria: How Warming Waters are Fueling the Spread of Vibrio Vulnificus

Abstract

Warming waters have been linked to the increase in infections with the rare flesh-eating bacterium Vibrio vulnificus, which is now moving along the east coast of the United States. This bacterium can cause life-threatening wound infections, with many people requiring intensive care or limb amputations, and about 1 in 5 people with this infection dying, sometimes within a day or 2 of becoming ill. This bacterium can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, a severe infection in which the flesh around an open wound dies.Recently in July 2023, the North Carolina state reported the deaths of 3 residents after their open wounds came into contact with brackish water near the coast. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is issuing a warning about this alarming V. vulnificus infection. Vibriosis is rare in this state and cases are mostly reported from June-September. NCDHHS also confirms that one individual also had consumed personally caught seafood that was not shared. Since 2019, 47 cases have been reported in North Carolina with a 17% case fatality rate. 1 The halophilic (salt-requiring) gram-negative bacteria namely V. vulnificus, exist naturally in seawater with increased infection occurrence and severity in warm summers (water temperature exceeds 150C) due to climatic change effects. 2,3 Additionally, the increased salinity of seawater has predisposed to higher prevalence rates of V. vulnificus (salinity range between 21% and 33%). 2 The reservoir of infection is sea animals and it is associated with eating sea foods, especially raw or uncooked oysters. It is a lethal zoonotic disease and its virulence is due to horizontal gene transfer in V. vulnificus and subsequently from aquaculture farms to human health. 3 Globally the pooled prevalence of V. vulnificus in fishes was 5.29%. 4 In 2018, vibriosis caused by V. vulnificus was 17.2 times more