Florida: 'brain-eating' amoeba and 'flesh-eating' bacteria

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Getty Images (illustration)

Concern in Florida over a case of a brain-eating amoeba and another of flesh-eating bacteria.

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In Florida, two cases of the bacteria ‘come carne’ and the amoeba ‘eats brain’. These are two people who contracted these diseases swimming in different waters of the state.

From the Florida Department of Health they reported that a 75-year-old man lost meat from his leg, while a child fights for his life after being attacked by the ‘brain-eating’ amoeba.

One of those affected is William Pledger, a 75-year-old man who had gone swimming with his family on the beaches of Little Sabine Bay on July 9. Five days later, he began to feel severe pain in one of his legs. To the point that his leg swelled up so much that he had to go to a medical center.

At the hospital he was diagnosed with Vibrio vulnificus, popularly known as ‘flesh-eating bacteria’. They had to amputate his leg.

Tourist in Florida seriously ill after contracting bacteria eats meat on a Florida beach https://t.co/CknMU2WriY via @https://twitter.com/cubaenmiami

— Cuba in Miami (@cubaenmiami) July 22, 2022

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As reported by the Florida Department of Health, vibrio is a bacteria that lives in warm water. It enters the body through cuts and bruises.

The boy who fights for his life

The other case that worries Florida medical authorities is that of Caleb Zigelbauer, a 13-year-old teenager who contracted negleria fowleri, also known as ‘brain-eating amoeba’, on July 1. He had been swimming in the waters off Port Charlotte Beach Park in southeast Florida.

Caleb fights for his life at Fort Myers Children’s Hospital. He was taken to that medical center after he presented a hallucinatory picture and loss of time and space.

According to statistics, 97% of people who contract Naegleria fowleri never recover.

Where is the ‘brain-eating amoeba’ found?

Specialists recommend avoiding warm waters that have loose sediment on the bottom to reduce the risk of contracting the ‘brain-eating’ amoeba.

An alternative when swimming in seas and rivers of this type is to use a nose clip to avoid inhaling the particles that float between those loose sediments on the bottom.