It used to be a wonderful salve before the pollution and other things:
"Deadly bacteria infect 31 in Florida; 10 have died but experts say it isn’t a major worry" by Tamara Lush | Associated Press, October 12, 2013
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Patty Konietzky thought the small purple lesion on her husband’s ankle was a spider bite. But when it quickly spread across his body like a constellation, she knew something wasn’t right.
After a trip to the hospital, a day and a half later Konietzky’s 59-year-old husband was dead.
The diagnosis: vibrio vulnificus, an infection caused by a bacterium found in warm salt water. It is in the same family of bacterium that causes cholera. So far this year, 31 people across Florida have been infected by the severe strain of vibrio and 10 have died.
I suppose that would explain Cuba's cholera crisis. Maybe, maybe not. I have other, more sinister and conspiratorial views.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: World's Worst Cholera Crisis
Still is, but don't hold your breath waiting for coverage.
‘‘I thought the doctors would treat him with antibiotics and we’d go home,’’ said Konietzky, who lives in Palm Coast, Fla. ‘‘Never in a million years [did it cross] my mind that this is where I’d be today.’’
State health officials say there are two ways to contract the disease: by eating raw, tainted shellfish — usually oysters — or when an open wound comes in contact with bacteria in warm seawater.
I'm not sure I believe state officials anymore because people have been doing these things a long time and not contracting this illness. What is different or what has changed recently?
In Mobile, Ala., this week health department officials said two men with underlying health conditions were diagnosed with vibrio vulnificus in recent weeks. One of the men died in September and the other is hospitalized. Both men were tending to crab traps when they came into contact with seawater.
While such occurrences could potentially concern officials in states with hundreds of miles of coastline and economies largely dependent on ocean-related tourism, experts say the bacteria is nothing most people should worry about.
This has the familiar feel of another slick, prevent a panic because it will cost us dough, p.r. campaign.
Vibrio bacteria exist normally in salt water and generally only affect people with compromised immune systems, they say. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. If the bacteria get into the bloodstream, they provoke symptoms including fever and chills, decreased blood pressure, and blistering skin wounds.
But there’s no need to stop swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, says Diane Holm, a spokeswoman for the state health department in Lee County, which has had a handful of cases that included one fatality this year.
‘‘This is nothing abnormal,’’ she said. ‘‘We don’t believe there is any greater risk for someone to swim in the Gulf today than there was yesterday or 10 years ago.’’
Yes, that is very interesting because all those areas are in the proximity of a calamitous oil spill followed by unprecedented chemical suppression that has rendered much of the Gulf lifeless.
And yet government is out there saying no problem here, just like it was ten years ago.
There have been reports this year in Gulf states of other waterborne illnesses, but they are rare. In fresh water, the Naegleria fowleri amoeba usually feeds on bacteria in the sediment of warm lakes and rivers. If it gets high up in the nose, it can get into the brain. Fatalities have been reported in Louisiana, Arkansas, and in Florida, including the August death of a boy in the southwestern part of the state who contracted the amoeba while knee boarding in a water-filled ditch.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Louisiana Has Water on the Brain
So does Arkansas.
Dr. James Oliver, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, has studied vibrio vulnificus for decades. He said that while Florida has the most cases of vibrio infection due to the warm ocean water that surrounds the state, the bacteria is found worldwide, generally in estuaries and near the coast.
The vast majority of people who are exposed to the bacteria don’t get sick, he said. A few people become ill but recover. Only a fraction of people are violently ill and fewer still die; Oliver said many of those people ingest tainted, raw shellfish.
Oliver and Florida Department of Health officials say people shouldn’t be afraid of going into Florida’s waters, but that those with suppressed immune systems, such as people who have cancer, diabetes, or cirrhosis of the liver, should be aware of the potential hazards of vibrio vulnificus, especially if they have an open wound.
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You can go for a swim if you want. I generally stay out of the water now.
Slow Saturday Surprises:
Just above the last article was this photograph:
"FLOODWATER RESCUE -- Emergency personnel lifted a young girl from a raft onto a 5-ton vehicle anchored in the floodwaters that swept through a mobile home park in Hellam, Pa., on Friday. One woman, four girls, two dogs, and cat were rescued (Boston Globe October 12 2013)."
"Fla. man says he shot wife in self-defense" by Curt Anderson | Associated Press, October 12, 2013
MIAMI — A man who shot his wife to death and then posted gruesome photographs of her corpse on Facebook told investigators he acted in self-defense because she was viciously attacking him, according to a statement police released Friday.
Derek Medina said in his Aug. 8 videotaped statement to Miami-Dade County Police detectives that he only shot 27-year-old Jennifer Alonso because he feared for his own life.
Medina claimed Alonso first started throwing boxes, shoes, and mascara at him, began punching and hitting him, and then pulled a knife after their argument moved downstairs to the kitchen.
Medina said he disarmed his wife and put the knife in a drawer, but said she began hitting him again. That’s when he says he started shooting, estimating he fired seven or eight times.
Asked why he turned himself in to police, Medina replied that it was ‘‘cause I’m not a killer. And it was self-defense.’’
Medina, 31, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder with a firearm in the Aug. 8 shooting at the South Miami home shared by the couple.
An autopsy report indicates that Alonso was on her knees when she was shot and suffered defensive wounds to one arm, which could contradict Medina’s story that she was the aggressor until the very end.
He's using the Israeli defense.
Medina also told police he had been an amateur boxer who had a 25-0 record in the ring.
Could there be a connection to steroids?
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