When thinking about going to the beach most people’s concerns center around drowning or sharks, but unfortunately, due to global warming, there is the new and increasingly prominent threat of bacterial infection. Micro-organisms such as the Shewanella algae (S. algae) and the flesh-eating bacterium Vibrio vulnificus (V. vulnificus) have been leading to serious cases of infections and in some cases even death. Previously, many such water-borne pathogens were found living in the waters off the coast of Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico where the temperature of the water was warm, but now these bacteria are starting to move northward. As stated by Jim Oliver, a microbiologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “It used to be highly unusual north of the Carolinas, now it’s fairly routine.”
Ed Houlihan, 83, was guiding kayakers on a four-mile trip in Cape Cod after which he was fine until five days later. On day five, his health took a toll as he experienced chills and aches. His shin turned red and sore and he experienced a high fever. Doctors later diagnosed him with S. algae infection caused by the bacterium which lives in brackish waters. The number of such infections have been on the rise as another bacterium V. vulnificus also caused three deaths in the State of New York.
These types of bacteria mostly enter the body through scrapes or cuts. Oliver finds in his recent study that the number of infections caused by the V. vulnificus has increased eightfold from 1988 to 2018, with about 10 cases in 1988 to about 80 cases on average in 2018. From 1988 to 2018, the Vibrio species in general have caused more than 1,100 wound infections and 159 deaths. Another find of Oliver’s study is that cases of such infections were found to be on average 48 kilometers further north each year indicating how unusually warmer temperatures in the north is a leading cause of these infections. Joan Brunkard, an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), explains this when she states, “any bacteria, including Vibrio, are more abundant in warm waters, and we know that water temperatures are increasing, and we had record-breaking heat waves this summer.”
Another correlation between rising temperatures and rising infection rates was also studied in Denmark. Infections due to these types of bacteria are a rarity for countries in northern Europe as the water temperatures there are too cold. However with the warming of the waters in the Baltic Sea, bacteria have been thriving leading to a risk of infections for humans. It was also found that the years when the summers were cooler, the rate of people getting sick was also lower. This again proves that sickness rates from bacteria are dependent upon the high temperatures.
In the U.S. the rise in people getting infected has led officials at the CDC to declare that medical practitioners should initiate intensive antibiotic treatment as soon as possible if a person is diagnosed with such an infection. Both types of bacteria have been noted to kill even within a day’s time. V. vulnificus has been reported to cause Sepsis, a dangerous condition where the body’s defenses to fight off illness start attacking the body’s own tissues and organs with more dire cases requiring limb amputations. For all these reasons and in order to avoid infections, the CDC recommends that those who are older, have liver disease, or have even a small cut should avoid swimming in warmer temperature waters. Houlihan believes that his cracked toenail was all that the pathogen needed to infiltrate his body. Since he has gotten infected with S. algae, he has been hospitalized thrice for a total of 26 days. He also had to undergo surgery to remove the tissue damaged and still has one more surgery pending. The procedures that Houlihan had to go through showcase not only how dangerous these bacteria are but also how global warming has so many side effects that haven’t even been considered before.
