By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times
If it seems like you’re seeing more reports about flesh-eating bacteria, you actually are. The number of cases is up, though only slightly. And scientists have begun pointing to an increasingly familiar cause: climate change.
The trend will likely continue because of steadily warming temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, which provide a “breeding ground” for the bacteria, said Dr. Sally Alrabaa, an an infectious disease specialist with USF Health and Tampa General Hospital.
“It’s by no means an epidemic but we are seeing more cases this year,” she said. “As the water is getting warmer by a few degrees the bacteria is flourishing for longer periods.”
Necrotizing fasciitis, the infection’s formal name, isn’t caused by the same bacteria found in the blue-green algae or red tide blooms that Florida has seen recently. “But the two are closely related,” Alrabaa said. “The bacteria that affects us has had a lot of food to ‘eat’ thanks to red tide, which has killed fish and marine animals. That’s a lot of organic material for it to feast on.”
Explaining it doesn’t make the situation any less concerning. Several recent reports from Tampa Bay and other parts of Florida have rattled a population that regularly comes into contact with the water. Among the cases: A 77-year-old Ellenton woman who scraped her leg in the waters off Anna Maria Island, got the infection and died; an Ohio man who spent 11 days in the hospital and nearly lost a foot after being infected near Weedon Island; another man who hooked his hand and caught the infection while fishing in the gulf off the Pinellas County coast around Easter.