Vibrio

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Gizmodo’s Top Five Gadgets of 2023A 16-month-old boy was playing in a splash pad at a country club in Little Rock, Arkansas, this summer when water containing a very rare and deadly brain-eating amoeba went up his nose. He died a few days later in the hospital. The toddler wasn’t the first person in the United States to contract the freshwater amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, this year. In February, a man in Florida died after rinsing his…

If you were already stressed about increased air pollution and more frequent heat waves, well, you can add another disturbing health impact of climate change to your list: the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which is thriving in warming U.S. waters. In a study published this week in Scientific Reports, researchers found that infections by bacteria Vibrio vulnificus could double in the United States within the next 20 years. The spread of this life-threatening germis being fueled by hotter temperatures that are…

Trailers are inundated by floodwaters at the Peace River Campground on October 4, 2022 in Arcadia, Florida.Photo: Sean Rayford (Getty Images)Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida in late September as a category 4 storm, bringing widespread flooding. Those toxic floodwaters appear to be spreading Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria that turns fatal for many people unlucky enough to contract it.The symptoms of these infections include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and open lesions on theskin, according to the CDC.…