ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The Vibrio Vulnificus, commonly known as ‘carne battery’, is a bacteria of the species ‘Vibrio’. Recently in the US, where this pathogen gives a few hundred infections a year, the first death of the year was recorded for this bacteria, in Florida. Recently on the media, a study by the University of Messina found traces of the bacterium in the Strait Sea, dating back to 2005. Last July, Ecdc, the European Center for Disease Control, launched an alert on the possible increase in infections of bacteria of the genus ‘Vibrio’ in summer, indicating above all the areas of the Baltic and the Black Sea as the most at risk.
The transmission of this pathogen can occur through the consumption of contaminated foods, especially seafood, causing gastroenteric symptoms easily solved without therapy, or through exposure of open wounds in salty/salmastre waters. In the case of infection through the wound it is caused by redness, bladders, hemorrhagic bubbles until it reaches the necrotizing fascite (from which the common name of ‘carne battery’), which in rare cases, especially if not treated with antibiotics, can be concluded with the amputement of the limb. In low percentage (5% in the USA) the infection can evolve in sepsis.
The risk of contracting Vibrio vulnificus infection in Italian waters – write in a note the experts of the Higher Institute of Health – is extremely low, despite in the past traces of the bacteria have been found in our country. The pathogen grows optimally at temperatures above 18°C and a salinity between 15-25 ppt (parts per thousand), while the average salinity of the Italian seas is 36 ppt.
The ‘Vibrio viewer’ website of the Ecdc, which monitors in real time the temperature and salinity of European waters through the data of the satellites by processing an ‘adaptation index’ for the vibrium, indicates how at risk those of the Baltic Sea and Black Sea, while it gives zero risk to those of southern Europe. The risk can be further reduced – remember the experts of the Higher Institute of Health – avoiding bathing with open wounds, caution to always use, especially if you are in a state of compromise of the immune system, and adopting precautions on food valid also for several other pathogens, avoiding the consumption of raw or uncooked seafood.
– Photo of repertoire Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
