Main reason I stopped diving or entering water is skin eating bacteria

[Navymarkv]

The safest would be to stay home and watch other people’s adventures on YouTube.

 

[STB]

Sadly Another one bites the dust


Florida woman dies of flesh-eating bacteria, family says

I bet the family from Pittsburg will never enter the saltwater.


now I read my cruising area Destin, FL is infected

 

[wildbill9]

Seriously?????

 

[tursiops]

So be careful of open wounds in the ocean, in the river, in the lake, in ANY body of natural water. Get the wound cleaned, disinfected, get antibiotics if necessary, keep an eye on it. Macho is not the success route.

 

[STB]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EV18F10/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1
this helps I have it in my cart, if I decide to get brave and enter saltwater, to bad destin,fl is infected.

I bet there will be alot of canceled vacations on this 4th july.

 

[saxman242]

I bet there will be alot of canceled vacations on this 4th july.

I doubt it

 

[Neilwood]

So be careful of open wounds in the ocean, in the river, in the lake, in ANY body of natural water. Get the wound cleaned, disinfected, get antibiotics if necessary, keep an eye on it. Macho is not the success route.

I agree with you - some care and attention combined with normal wound treatment would most likely suffice.

I think of this with regards to this thread though

The OP is obviously not going to change his mind

 

[The Chairman]

Hope you don't have it.

Sorry, I didn't use an emoticon to indicate that I was being facetious. My son had MRSA and it was hell getting rid of it. He lost a lot of "meat" where ever they cut out the infected areas. Simply brutal and created by man.

On a sad note, we've had a second case of this so far this year, and the elderly lady died. Apparently she fell at the beach and cut herself. The sepsis got in her blood and she had multiple organ failures. They are attributing this to elevate sea temps and suggested that warmer waters by the shore are responsible for this.

As a kid, we used to eat oysters right out of the Gulf, but we wouldn't touch coon oysters. Now, before you think it's a racist term, it refers to oysters exposed at high tide that the raccoons would eat. The extra heat allowed all sorts of bacteria and other crap to flourish. You were way more apt to get sick by eating one. I got sick from eating bad oysters in Dec 74. I don't remember many sicknesses, mush less when I got them, but I was out of school for a couple weeks after winter break. Gnarly.

 

[DBPacific]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EV18F10/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1
this helps I have it in my cart, if I decide to get brave and enter saltwater, to bad destin,fl is infected.

I bet there will be alot of canceled vacations on this 4th july.

Not really. If you don't have a weakened immune system, you're probably fine. A lot of the cases I see in the news are beachgoers. Beach water is nice and warm, especially on shallow beaches, because it's shallower water warmed by the sun. Since you're very worried, if you want to dive/avoid necrotizing fasciitis, then dive in cooler water and stay away from fishing, handling fish, and any other sources of water that are warm enough for the bacteria. I sympathize with the Florida mosquitoes, but if you're healthy and don't rupture the mosquito bites and don't itch them and tear off the scabs, and keep a close eye on them afterwards, you should be fine.

Also if you're trying to eat yogurt to improve your gut microbes, be careful and read the labels to make sure you're not just eating a bunch of sugar masquerading as yogurt

 

[The Chairman]

but if you're healthy and don't rupture the mosquito bites and don't itch them and tear off the scabs, and keep a close eye on them afterwards, you should be fine.

Be safe and use repellents. I do that wherever I go to dive.