Rare, flesh-eating bacteria on the rise in U.S. waters. Will it reach Canada?
Global News
A rare and fatal flesh-eating bacteria is slowly creeping up the eastern U.S. coast, and experts warn that it could eventually find its way into Canada.
A rare and fatal flesh-eating bacteria is slowly creeping up the eastern U.S. coast, and some experts warn that it could eventually find its way into Canada if climate change continues to heat our oceans and lakes.
The bacteria Vibrio vulnificus is usually found in subtropical regions, like the Gulf Coast (in states like Florida and Texas), which is home to warm waters with low salt content. But a recent study published on March 23 in the Scientific Reports journal said that over the last few decades, there has been an increase in the bacteria in northern locations near New Jersey and Delaware.
The study found that Vibrio vulnificus is expanding northward around 48 kilometres a year.
Infection in humans by the bacteria could double in the United States within the next 20 years, and even reach Canada in 70 years, the researchers of the study said.
“Vibrio vulnificus is considered the most deadly of the vibrio pathogens. You just need a tiny cut on the skin or even an insect bite and this can become infected through exposure to the bacteria in seawater,” lead study author Elizabeth Archer told Global News.
The tiny cuts can get infected and then develop necrotizing fasciitis (also known as flesh-eating bacteria). It then can spread rapidly (in a matter of days) and people will need anti-biotic treatment or even surgical removal of tissue to prevent spread into the bloodstream, she explained.
Archer, who is also an associate tutor at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, said that if greenhouse gas emissions are kept low, then cases of this bacteria may extend only as far as Connecticut. But if emissions remain high, then this type of flesh-eating bacteria is “predicted to occur in every U.S. state on the East Coast.”
The spread of the life-threatening bacteria is likely caused by hotter temperatures that are warming coast waters, the study said. An increase in temperature affects the salinity in the water, which the bacteria favours.