Bacteria Eats Meat And Hurricane Harvey

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Health authorities in Galveston County, Texas confirmed Monday the death of a second person after Hurricane Harvey passed due to an infection with the deadly carnivorous bacteria.

Josué Cochito Gideón Pérez Zurita died on October 16 from complications of necrotizing fasciitis. The Mexican-born patient had been to a clinic six days earlier with a wound to his upper left arm, the Galveston County Health District (GCDH) confirmed in a statement.

The infection is caused by a rare bacterium that spreads across the skin and kills soft tissue. According to the statement, the deceased had been dedicated to repair houses damaged by the hurricane that hit Texas almost two months ago.

"The infection most likely occurred when bacteria left by debris from Hurricane Harvey entered his body through a wound or cut," said Dr. Philip Keiser of the GCHD. "This is a very rare type of infection, which does not make it less painful for this person's family and friends."

Keizer also clarified that the infection was not related to the bacterium vibrio vulnificus, which is found naturally on beaches.

"[Zurita] was a loving father and a very hard-working carpenter," said an obituary posted on the Carnes Brothers funeral home portal in Galveston. There she also made sure that the man had moved from her native Mexico to help her family and that she had stayed in Texas to "help rebuild after Hurricane Harvey."

Pérez Zurita thus joins Nancy Reed, 77, who also died of this same infection after Harvey's passing.

According to the KTRK channel, a paramedic who worked during Harvey's crisis also suffers from this same type of infection. In his case, the possible contact occurred while kayaking through the flooded waters of the streets of the Missouri City town. The patient survived.