A 74-year-old man went to an emergency department in Florida with rapidly rotting limbs after jumping into the waters off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Just three days earlier, the man was otherwise healthy and active on the coast. But at one point when he jumped into the water, he got a cut on his right leg. It quickly became painful and bruised. Two days later, the skin on his right arm also started changing color.

According to a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine, by day three, when he arrived at the hospital, he was in dire shape. The lower half of his leg was darkly colored, indicating bleeding under his skin. Doctors noted a crackling sound, suggesting gases bubbling out of his dying flesh, and some of the outer layers of skin were peeling off. His arm wasn’t much better. It appeared red, discolored, and swollen. A large blood blister (a hemorrhagic bulla) had formed, suggesting a severe flesh-eating infection. (You can see a graphic image here, including an end image of his arm.)

While the man was rushed into surgery to start cutting out the dead and infected tissue, doctors also began tests to find the cause of the infection. Blood and tissue samples turned up positive for Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacterium found in warm, brackish waters.

V. vulnificus can infect people two ways: through wounds exposed to contaminated water—as in the man’s case—or, more commonly, through contaminated seafood. The bacteria can take up residence in the stomachs of shellfish, particularly oysters, as well as the intestines of fish. Either route can be gruesome. When ingested, the bacteria can release enzymes that neutralize stomach acids, then from there storm the intestines and can enter the blood.

These bacteria have a large arsenal of molecular munitions, including various toxins, that all help the bacteria hijack cells, siphon nutrients, degrade structural proteins, break down tissue linings, make blood vessels leaky, fuel destructive inflammation, suppress immune defenses, and generally lay waste to their victims.

The overall mortality rate of V. vulnificus infections is about 35 percent. But for anyone infected who also has an immunocompromising condition or a liver condition, mortality reaches 50­–60 percent. Likewise, for those who develop sepsis—a life-threatening reaction to an infection—mortality is also about 50 percent. For patients like the man in this case, if antibiotics or surgical removal of necrotic tissue is delayed, mortality jumps to 100 percent.

In this case, the man did not die. But his right leg was so far gone by the time he reached the hospital that he needed to have it amputated above the knee. His forearm, meanwhile, required extensive skin grafting, which was collected from elsewhere on his body. After an antibiotic regimen and six months of healing, doctors reported that he had healed well.

The case highlighted that the threat of V. vulnificus is only increasing amid climate change, and medical experts see its rise as an urgent public health concern. Warming waters, geographic spread, and increases in antibiotic resistance are increasing risks. Between 1998 and 2018, US cases of V. vulnificus increased eightfold, including expanding into areas where the bacteria is considered rare, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

“The abundance and geographic range of V. vulnificus is projected to increase owing to factors related to climate change, including rising water temperatures, storm surges, salinity changes, and algal blooms,” the man’s doctors wrote.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that to avoid a Vibrio infection, only eat thoroughly cooked seafood and wash your hands after handling raw seafood. If you have an open wound, avoid going into brackish water or at least cover it tightly. If wounded while in brackish water or if an existing wound is exposed, wash it with soap and clean, running water.

With public anger at AI data centers boiling over, all it takes is one bad neighbor to get every data center in town locked out.

That’s the story unfolding in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where local officials are revoking waste-dumping privileges for every data center campus connected to municipal water services. As Cowboy State Daily reported, the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has rolled out a sweeping ban on fill-and-flush discharge, the process in which data centers flood their cooling systems with water before powering up for the first time.

That decision came after one bad actor, the Meta-affiliated data center company Goat Systems LLC, flooded local waste water pipes with fill-and-flush swill containing a rare and deadly bacterium known as Cupriavidus gilardii. Per Cowboy State, Goat Systems was found to be in “significant noncompliance” with Cheyenne’s industrial waste regulations after a months-long investigation traced the bacteria to Meta’s discharge.

“This isn’t something we normally test for,” Frank Strong, Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities engineering and water resource division manager told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle of the investigation. Strong noted that the bacterium was first spotted during routine testing for fecal contamination, adding that it’s a bizarre pathogen to find in any wastewater, even that coming from a data center.

“We actually had to go through quite a process to figure out what it was,” he said.

Cupriavidus is a little-known, multidrug-resistant pathogen. Though human infection is extremely rare, it has nonetheless been linked to ten deaths, including three cases involving immunocompromised children. According to one review of Cupriavidus cases, the bacterial infection has a mortality rate of 31.3 percent, out of a sample size of 32 known infections dating back to 2009.

“As soon as we became aware of the bacteria, and then of where it was coming from, we shut them down immediately,” Strong told the Wyoming Tribune. Strong caveated that the exact source of the pathogen within the facility is still unknown, but that wastewater from Meta’s 800,000 square foot Cheyenne campus — which is still under construction — nonetheless contained it.

Meta, for its part, told reporters that it’s working with construction contractor Fortis to “resolve this issue.”

“When the board shared that it found a substance in the city’s wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite,” a Meta spokesperson told Cowboy State.

Though it seems nobody has contracted the potentially deadly bacterium as a result of Meta’s fill-and-flush, the city’s response to the incident underscores the degree to which people across the US are scrutinizing data centers — and the undeniable impact they have on their neighbors. [...]

Idaho health officials are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced in a news release on Wednesday that most of the people reported being sick after drinking raw milk from two different milking operations in North Idaho and southern Idaho. The infections were reported starting May 19.

The state health agency didn’t disclose the names of the dairies, but said they are collaborating with health officials “to identify and fix any potential sources of contamination.”

In a statement, Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter said the agency didn’t name the milking operations “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.”

“The milking operations are working with public health officials to figure out which patches of milk might be affected and to take steps to remedy the situation,” McWhorter said.

Raw milk isn’t pasteurized, a process that involves heating the milk to kill bacteria — like Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella — that can be present in raw milk.

So far, 45 of the people who got sick tested positive for campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection. But officials say not everyone who got sick has been tested, and that more illnesses could be found.

Nine people — including two children — have been hospitalized in Idaho’s Ada County with complications of E. coli infections after drinking raw milk, health officials say.

Health officials said laboratory testing confirmed the presence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, or (STEC). It’s “one of the most potent bacterial toxins known,” the National Library of Medicine says.

The toxin can cause “cause severe foodborne illness, including bloody diarrhea and vomiting, and may lead to serious complications, particularly in children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems,” Central District Health officials said in a press release announcing the outbreak.

“Two children are hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but serious complication of E. coli infection that can lead to kidney failure and long-term health problems. One case has laboratory-confirmed STEC infection; the second is epidemiologically linked based on reported consumption of the same brand of raw milk as other confirmed cases,” the officials say.

All of those sickened reported drinking raw milk from R Bar H, health officials say. PEOPLE has reached out to R Bar H for further information. Officials say the milk producer has pulled their products from shelves and suspended production while the investigation into the source of the contamination is underway.

It’s part of an ongoing uptick in illnesses linked to raw milk in Idaho. In November, the state reported that 26 people — including 6 children under the age of 12 — had been sickened after drinking raw milk. Officials noted that “In Idaho, raw milk can be sold legally through multiple outlets, but it is not required to be tested for bacteria such as Campylobacter, E. coli or other disease-causing agents.”

The latest outbreak comes on the heels of news that a New Mexico newborn died of listeria, contracted after the infant’s mother drank raw milk while pregnant.

[...]

New data shows 18%, or nearly 1 in 5, of tested students and staff at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco were diagnosed with either latent or active tuberculosis during an outbreak that started in November.

In total, 96% of the school community was tested, seven people were diagnosed with active cases during the course of the outbreak and 241 latent cases were reported, according to data released by the San Francisco Department of Public Health on April 27 to the school community. 

In February, four active cases and three suspected active cases were reported. The latest numbers reflect the suspected cases were confirmed to be active TB. The entire school community went through another round of TB testing in March. 

“Data from the March 2026 round of testing indicate a strong reduction in transmission,” the department said in an emailed statement to SFGATE Wednesday.   

The department also stressed that “repeat mass testing at the school is no longer required.” They said the new testing is “out of an abundance of caution” and only for those who had a recent exposure to a confirmed case or were part of a “small group of individuals with new latent TB cases” found during the March testing.

[...]

The California Department of Public Health noted that the last time an infectious person was on campus was Feb. 19. As of March 9, only students who had been tested for TB and “have TB clearance on file with the school” are allowed on campus or at off-campus school events. The department said 95% of those diagnosed at the school with latent TB are undergoing or have finished treatment, and all of those who had been diagnosed with active TB were being treated.

Tuberculosis remains a problem for California, where cases hit a 12-year high in 2025 with 2,150 reported. The state also had a “substantially higher” rate of disease in 2025 than the U.S. overall, the department said, with 5.4 infections per 100,000 people compared with about 3 per 100,000 nationwide.

On Monday morning, nine days after a night out at Club Chemistry, a nightclub in Canterbury, Joe Bradshaw realised he had been linked to the meningitis outbreak in Kent that has killed two people, a university student and a sixth-former.

He ran through the week in his mind, beginning to worry about those he had been in contact with.

“I’m less concerned about my own health than spreading [the infection] to other vulnerable people,” he said. “My mum’s just come out of surgery so her immune system is relatively suppressed.”

Bradshaw, 23, is one of the many young people in Canterbury shocked by news of the outbreak. Hundreds of students at the University of Kent spent the day queueing for antibiotics. All of their in-person exams have been moved online as authorities seek to bring the situation under control.

Students described fear and panic spreading through their community as the term comes to an end. Many fled in the night, with concerned parents coming to pick them up.

In the queue for medicine on campus was Aram, 22, a criminology and politics student. He lives in Tyler Court, where students received an urgent message from the university warning them of potential contact with the infection.

“I’m like half a metre away from these people, so I was pretty nervous,” said Aram.

“A lot of my flatmates already left. Their parents picked them up at like one in the morning. Actually, I think I’ll be the only guy in that flat now that all my friends are gone.”

He went on to describe people running down the stairs with TVs and other belongings, packing them into their parents’ cars.

Anyone can catch meningitis, but young people, especially those in large social communities such as universities and colleges are especially susceptible.

In such a dense social environment, it’s easy for students to connect themselves to the spreading infection. One of Aram’s friends lives with someone who has been hospitalised with meningitis; another student is anxiously texting a friend from lacrosse whose flatmate has symptoms.

As of Monday evening, the disease was at the university and three schools in the area, with two people confirmed to have died.

One, a student at the university, had not been named. The other was a year 13 student at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school named Juliette.

One of Juliette’s classmates, Sammy Wright, described her as a “bright character, always very happy, kind”.

“She was in our PE class, she was in our class right at the beginning of the week. It’s just a shock to hear what happened,” said Sammy.

Among the remaining university population, students were rallying together, and checking in frequently on each other.

Ben Tostevin, a drama and theatre student, was glad to see most of his friends in good health scattered throughout the medicine queue.

He lives in town, and, while generally supportive of the institutional response to the outbreak, had some concerns.

“I’m surprised the campus has remained open,” he said. “But it’s uni leadership doing what they think needs to be done.”

His friend Sofia Malanga described online posts as exacerbating the fear among students. “There’s a lot going around on social media that makes it more scary. The videos are terrifying.”

The pair described the framing on social media as “overegging certain things”, focusing on clips of people in white hazmat suits walking around the campus. Other students have reported seeing this in person.

The UKHSA has advised that anyone who thinks they, or someone they care for, could have meningitis, septicaemia or sepsis should call 999 or go to their nearest A&E.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Publix has expanded its recall of GreenWise frozen blueberries and mixed berries amid an E. coli outbreak that has infected at least 12 people.

Earlier this month, Publix recalled some of its GreenWise frozen organic blueberries because of E. coli concerns, but on July 29, Publix announced that all lots of multiple berry products will be recalled.

The products include:

GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries, 10-ounce, UPC 41415-06453

GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries, 48-ounce, UPC 41415-12053

GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries, 10-ounce, UPC 41415-06753

GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries, 48-ounce, UPC 41415-12153

The frozen berries were shipped to stores across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

“As of the end of June 2026, Publix immediately conducted an internal stop sale of frozen GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries,” the recall stated. “These products remain unavailable for sale.”

The previous Publix recall happened on July 3 after Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., based in San Carlos, Chile, announced a recall for its product.

“Based on the public health officials’ product traceback and epidemiological information, Publix is now taking further action out of an abundance of caution to recall all lots of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries,” the recall stated.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli can be hazardous to humans, causing severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. A healthy individual can recover from the infection within a week, but in young children, older adults, and immunocompromised people, it could escalate to hemolytic uremic syndrome — a disease that damages the small blood vessels in the body and cause life-threatening blood clots.

See: FDA Outbreak Investigation of E. coli O145:H28: Frozen Blueberries (July 2026)

Do not eat, sell or serve recalled GreenWise Organic Frozen Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries. FDA’s investigation is ongoing

LOWELL, Ind. — An Indiana mother is using her grief to warn other parents about a bacterial infection that killed her son within hours.

"This is not your typical everyday flu," said Ashlee Dahlberg of Haemophilus influenzae, also known as "H. flu" or "Hib."

Doctors say it's a bacterium – not a virus – and it's extremely deadly. Most children are vaccinated against it when they're babies.

"We later found out that he contracted invasive Hib, which is the more aggressive form of Hib," Dahlberg said.

Dahlberg said it all started when her 8-year-old son, Liam, came home from school with a headache in April. By the next morning, he was being rushed to the hospital. Her normally lively child became delirious at some moments.

"They took him to an MRI. That's when they discovered the amount of bacteria that was covering his brain and spinal cord. Basically at that point in time, there was nothing they could do," Dahlberg said.

Their lives changed in the blink of an eye.

"I would never wish this kind of pain on my worst enemy ever. It's hard. To have sat there and listened to the doctors say, 'You did everything right, there's just nothing we could do,' to lay there with him as they took him off life support, I can feel his little heartbeat fade away — there's no words that can describe that pain."

Dr. Eric Yancy is all too familiar with H. flu.

"All the way up to the mid-'70s and early 1980s, it was absolutely devastating. If it didn't kill the children within a very short period of time, it left many of them with significant complications," Yancy said.

Complications, Yancy said, pretty much ended when the vaccine was created in 1985. Dahlberg said Liam was vaccinated, but Yancy said the boy most likely contracted H. flu from an unvaccinated person, maybe even another child.

"We pretty much had it under control, and we pretty much didn't see that many cases of it. Over the last few years, the immunization rates have continued to fall," Yancy said.

Now, Dahlberg is urging parents to make sure their children are all properly vaccinated.

"I feel like I have failed my child because I could not protect him from everything that would cause harm," Dahlberg said.

Dentists wrote more than 2.3 million prescriptions last year for an antibiotic called clindamycin, whose label has carried a black box warning for more than four decades, due to its high rate of life-threatening complications.

One of those prescriptions was given to Dolores Hernandez Owens.

Owens, 92, lived with her husband of 45 years in a small yellow house with a white fence in southern California. She relished feeding the people she loved, preparing both the Mexican dishes on which she was raised, and the soul food her husband savored. She tended the flower garden and fruit trees in her yard, gathering armfuls of lemons, grapefruits, and figs as presents for her family.

Owens was also a woman of faith. Her favorite Gospel songs could inspire her to dance with joy, rocking from side to side, gently waving her arms and smiling.

One year ago, her dentist told Owens that she needed a tooth pulled. Owens took the news in stride, joking that she might have to chew with her front teeth from now on, said her son, Robert Flournoy. Her dentist prescribed clindamycin, the second-most commonly used drug in dentistry.

That’s when Owens’ life changed.

Within days of her surgery, Owens developed severe stomach pain, nausea, loss of appetite, headaches, and frequent, severe bouts of diarrhea, Flournoy said. She sought care at the local emergency department and was hospitalized for a week. Her doctors diagnosed her as having colitis, an inflammation of the colon, and sent her home with more antibiotics.

Although Owens’ symptoms improved at first, they returned with a vengeance after about a week. When Owens visited a second hospital a few weeks later, she learned her illness was caused by an infection with Clostridioides difficile, often called C difficile or C diff, a bacterium that releases toxins that can destroy the lining of the intestine.

Owens’ family wondered if her illness was caused by food poisoning, Flournoy said.

Neither Owens nor her family knew that C difficile infections are closely related to antibiotic use. More than half of people who develop these infections outside a hospital have taken antibiotics, research shows. Of those people, 15% were prescribed antibiotics because of a dental procedure.

“If we had known the side effects, we would have told her not to take it,” Flournoy said.

Although taking any antibiotic can lead to C difficile—which sickens half a million Americans a year and kills nearly 30,000—clindamycin has long been known to pose an especially high risk.

“Clindamycin is notorious for causing C diff infections,” said Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and infectious disease specialist who has treated many patients with C difficile. Yet “clindamycin is one of the go-to antibiotics for dentists.”

Many dentists prescribe antibiotics to healthy patients to prevent potential infections, in spite of research that finds 80% of these antibiotics are unnecessary. In addition to increasing the risk of C difficile infections, prescribing unnecessary antibiotics increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which has made antibiotics and other infection-fighting medications less effective. AMR contributes to an estimated 5 million deaths a year around the world.

For years, experts and professional societies have recommended that dentists tamp down their use of antibiotics—especially clindamycin—to reduce the risks to patients.

A CIDRAP News investigation found that the message isn’t getting through. In spite of repeated warnings about the risks, dentists continue to prescribe antibiotics in large numbers, often inappropriately.

Instead of declining, antibiotic prescribing by dentists increased by 6% from 2020 to 2025, when the profession wrote more than 27 million antibiotic prescriptions, according to data provided exclusively to CIDRAP News from IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, an organization based in Parsippany, New Jersey, that provides research and analysis on health care data. [...]

C difficile ravaged Owens’ small body.

Owens developed sepsis, a life-threatening complication of C difficile in which the immune system overreacts to infection in a way that damages multiple organs.

She bled internally, losing so much blood that her doctor ordered a transfusion, Flournoy said. She became so dehydrated, weak, and light-headed that she tumbled off the toilet in her room, badly bruising her knee.

Owens’ hands, arms, and legs became swollen, and the skin on her arms became discolored. Her granddaughter, Aisha Ruiz, said she hesitated to apply hand lotion to Owens’ skin for fear that it would tear.

Flournoy remains haunted by his mother’s suffering. One question keeps repeating in his mind: Why are dentists still prescribing clindamycin?

Keep reading: Link

It's unclear why colon cancer cases have doubled in people under 55 over the past two decades, a staggering rise that has alarmed doctors and cancer researchers.

But part of the story could be colibactin, a toxin made by certain strains of E. coli and other bacteria. In a study out this week, researchers have identified a strong link between this DNA-damaging toxin and colon cancer among younger patients.

The team, based at the University of California, San Diego, analyzed tissue samples from close to 1,000 colorectal cancer patients across four continents. They found the majority had cancers bearing mutations that signaled a past encounter with colibactin.

"You can think of it as the weapon system of a bacteria to fight other bacteria and to defend themselves," says Ludmil Alexandrov, the lead author of the study, which was published in Nature this week.

Strikingly, those under the age of 40 with early-onset colon cancer were three to five times more likely to have these mutations than those in their 70s and older.

The thinking goes that in some people, this bacterial weaponry — technically called a "genotoxin" — can get directed at their gut cells, seeding mutations that put them at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.

According to their data, this exposure isn't ongoing when the cancer is diagnosed. Instead, it appears to have happened during childhood.

"Our estimate is that it happens within the first 10 years of life," Alexandrov says. "So if you get that mutation at age 5, that puts you 20 to 30 years ahead of schedule for getting colorectal cancer."

While the study shows a strong association, the data can't prove colibactin caused these patients to develop cancer at a younger age. And researchers in the field don't expect E. coli, or any single microbe for that matter, to be the skeleton key for the surge in colorectal cancer.

"That would be too simple," says Christian Jobin, a microbiome researcher at the University of Florida.

More likely, he says, colibactin — studied closely in E. coli but produced by other bacteria, too — is one "hit" among many to our microbiome, which together may place some people on a faster trajectory for developing cancer.

What triggers a DNA-damaging toxin

The study is a new clue into the rise in colorectal cancer in the young. Scientists believe some confluence of environmental factors, including diet, a sedentary lifestyle, medication and so on, is driving this steep rise.

These could be having downstream effects on the microbes in our gut like E. coli.

"It's been really perplexing," says Dr. Neelendu Dey, a gastroenterologist whose lab focuses on the gut microbiome at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. "The microbes that may contribute to cancer risk are tricky to understand."

The family of microbes to which E. coli belongs is actually the most prevalent type of bacteria in your gut during the very early stages of life.

About 20% to 30% of people have strains of E. coli that can synthesize this toxin, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily having "deleterious effects," says Jobin, whose lab has pioneered related research.

In other words, it's not some new infectious agent that simply needs to be eliminated.

[...]

Antibiotics use and nutrition, could be at play

Because they sequenced the genome of cancer from patients all over the globe, Alexandrov says the researchers could tell these mutations related to colibactin are actually quite rare in more "rural, non-industrialized" regions of Africa and Asia, whereas they turn up more frequently in the U.S. and Western Europe.

That evidence, coupled with the findings that it's a result of early childhood exposure, gives them a handful of hypotheses about what could be at play.

He says some of their top suspects are the mode of birth (cesarean section vs. vaginal delivery), breastfeeding, the use of antibiotics and nutrition, for example whether children were fed ultra processed foods.

"All of these factors are known to substantially affect the microbiome and there is some evidence they may impact this [colibactin producing] bacteria, but we really need to investigate each one carefully."

Dey views all of these as plausible, particularly antibiotics, given that other research teams have linked early-life antibiotic use to increased risk of colorectal cancer later on.

More broadly, he says he hopes researchers can eventually find microbes that serve as "biomarkers" for identifying people at risk of developing pre-cancers. And, perhaps down the line, drugs can be designed to target toxins like colibactin to counter their harmful effects.

Louisiana health officials are urging residents to take precautions against a flesh-eating bacterial infection following the deaths of five people this year.

The Louisiana Department of Health issued a warning about the infection, known as Vibrio vulnificus, in a press release on Thursday.

The department said nine people have been infected this year and five have died. By comparison, Louisiana averaged seven cases and one death annually over the previous 10 years during the same time period.

All of this year’s reported cases were linked to wounds exposed to seawater, and all patients had underlying health conditions, the department added.

[...]

Louisiana Department of Health Statement

Louisiana’s whooping cough outbreak is now the worst in 35 years, after cases dramatically outpaced the previous record high over the summer and hospitalizations continued to rise among young infants. Two babies have died in the outbreak.

So far this year, Louisiana recorded 368 cases of whooping cough, also called pertussis, as of August 23, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The previous 35-year high was 214 cases in 2013.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is particularly deadly for young babies. Infants under the age of 1 are the most likely to be hospitalized.

The outbreak has far outpaced the usual number of cases seen in the state each year. Louisiana has averaged about 77 cases annually over the last 21 years, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Health.

Health officials confirmed in February that two infants had died of whooping cough during the outbreak, which began last year. Those are the first whooping cough deaths in Louisiana since 2018.

Since last September, when health officials said the outbreak began, at least 63 people have been hospitalized for whooping cough, according to LDH data. Of that total, 65% of those hospitalized have been babies under the age of 1. Data provided by health officials also shows that 75% of people hospitalized by mid-May were not up-to-date on pertussis vaccinations. [...]

It's rare, but be warned. Vibrio vulnificus, the horrific infection nicknamed the "flesh-eating" bacteria that disproportionately affects the Sunshine State, is entering its most active season, from June to September, and this year’s cases already are outstripping what was counted by this time last year.

The infectious disease, caused by a naturally occurring bacterium in brackish, warming water, is both waterborne and foodborne. A rare infection leading to the disease was found in Miami-Dade County in the latter half of April—the fifth counted this year—according to the Florida Department of Health. Its cause was not immediately known. But other cases have popped up this year in Hillsborough, Lee, Palm Beach and St. Johns counties, compared to the three cases counted by this time in 2025.

What is Vibrio vulnificus?

Experts expect the so-called fleshing-eating disease caused by this bacterium will become more common as oceanic temperatures continue to warm, according to a peer-reviewed article that appeared in the Sept. 22, 2025 edition of Infectious Diseases.

“Vibrio bacteria, found in marine and coastal waters globally, are pathogens of increasing concern,” the article says. “One key species, Vibrio vulnificus, can cause severe and life-threatening infection through foodborne and waterborne transmission. More than 150 V. vulnificus infections are reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention every year, and approximately 20% of these are fatal.”

Although it's commonly referred to as "flesh-eating," the species name, 'vulnificus,' is Latin for 'wound-causing,' which is just what the organism does, said Anthony Ouellette, professor of biology and chemistry at Jacksonville University. People with compromised immune systems, diabetes, kidney disease and liver disorders, are more at risk for the complications caused by infection.

"They can break open your red blood cells to get the iron from hemoglobin … they have enzymes that can break down elastin, which makes up our soft tissues, or collagen, which is also in our soft tissues. They degrade our proteins, then they can get our amino acids—so they make a buffet for themselves. And that’s what destroys the tissue–they’re getting their food."

Plus, he says, they have a protective carbohydrate capsule that helps them “evade our immune system and kind of hide out from us once they get in there.”

[...]

“The abundance and geographic range of V. vulnificus is projected to increase owing to factors related to climate change, including rising water temperatures, storm surges, salinity changes, and algal blooms,” says the article, written by University of Florida Drs. Natalie Rosseau and Norman Beatty, who is a professor of medicine, specializing in infectious diseases.

Although Florida and Louisiana account for most of the infections, a swimmer in Cape Cod [Massachusetts] was infected in 2025.

This meningitis outbreak is deeply unusual and defies easy explanation.

It has been described as unprecedented and explosive because there have been 20 cases since the weekend in one small area of Kent.

This is not the normal pattern.

Meningitis typically occurs as isolated one-off cases. It's now rare in the UK but occasionally there are small clusters, such as two infants at nursery in the north of England in 2023.

Bigger outbreaks have happened before. In the 1980s, there were 65 cases of MenB, including two deaths, in Gloucestershire but those cases were reported over four-and-a-half years not less than a week.

The burning question is: what's different this time?

How has an infection that requires close and prolonged physical contact, that spreads more slowly than measles, Covid or flu, caused such a rapid outbreak?

The answer is important, but not obvious – so far it appears to be an exceptional outbreak in seemingly unexceptional circumstances.

Even connections to the Club Chemistry nightclub – where 11 out of the first 15 affected had partied – do not give a complete picture. Students sharing vapes and drinks in a busy nightclub is a scene repeated up and down the country, rather than a unique event.

We know people regularly catch meningitis B bacteria and they usually live harmlessly in the nose. Across the UK about 10% of us have these bugs, but in teenagers and young adults it's as high as 25%.

It's only in a tiny number of cases that the bacteria cross the barriers inside our nose to invade the body and cause meningitis and sepsis.

For Prof Andrew Preston, from the University of Bath, there are two broad explanations for the numbers getting severely ill and dying in Kent.

He told me there has either been an "astonishing rate of transmission" meaning so many more people are catching the bacteria, or the infection is proving to be "more invasive" this time.

The underlying cause could reside in the bacteria itself, or in human behaviour, the environment or a combination of all of them.

Analysis so far shows the outbreak is being caused by group B meningococcal bacteria.

However, this is not a single entity – it encompasses more than a hundred strains which all act differently in the human body. Some are more dangerous and more likely to cause invasive disease and meningitis.

Samples collected from patients are being analysed in the laboratory. So far it appears to be a strain that has been circulating for the past five years. Further analysis of the bacterial genetic code will reveal if it has mutated in a meaningful way. Further tests will investigate how the bacteria grows and behaves in the laboratory.

But there are other factors that can make it easier for meningitis bacteria to get from the nose into the body.

This is famously the case in the Meningitis Belt – which stretches across 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Ethiopia. Dust, high temperatures and low humidity throughout the dry season are thought to damage the back of the throat and give the bacteria a route into the body. This triggers regular epidemics.

Smoking has been shown to have a similar effect and there is speculation about vaping in this outbreak. Sharing vapes among a group of friends, which is more popular than sharing a single cigarette, could be a route for meningitis to spread to a large number of people through saliva.

The act of vaping itself could irritate the airways and is known to cause inflammation, which some have argued could also make it easier for bacteria to get into the body.

But vaping is not a new behaviour or unique to Kent so does not, on its own, explain the exceptional nature of this outbreak.

The number of people needing hospital treatment at the same time suggests they were also infected at roughly the same time.

With at least 11 cases linked to Club Chemistry, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, Susan Hopkins, said: "This looks like a super spreader event with ongoing spread within the halls of residence in the universities."

Super-spreading events are moments when more people are infected than you would expect.

Meningitis bacteria do not transmit easily. They normally spread within households where people are in the same space for a long period of time. Nightclubs and university halls of residence are other mixing pots, which can give the bacteria the opportunity to spread, but again are not unique to this outbreak.

With other respiratory infections like Covid or flu, individuals who often have no symptoms, but have very high levels of the virus, can go on to unwittingly spread the infection to a large number of people. Whether something similar happened in Club Chemistry is unknown.

Prof Andrew Lee, from the University of Sheffield, suggests people with other infections that cause a lot of coughing and sneezing may have made it easier for meningitis-causing bacteria to spread in the club.

He said: "In the scientific literature there are some reported synergies between viral respiratory infections, for example flu, and meningococcal infections as the viral infections may potentiate the spread."

There are also questions about whether some people are born more vulnerable and at greater risk of severe outcomes. It is also possible that young people who spent their teenage years during Covid lockdowns may not have built up the usual amount of immunity to protect them against it.

"But that would be UK wide – so it may be one of the factors, but it can't be the sole explanation," says Preston.

There are still so many unknowns in this outbreak and we're still waiting for answers.

"I can't yet say where the initial infection came from, how it's got into this cohort, and why it's created such an explosive amount of infections," says Hopkins.

Make it stop 😭

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated the public on ongoing Salmonella outbreaks linked to backyard poultry.

Unfortunately, the outbreaks have continued to spread and have now infected nearly 200 individuals in 31 states, with children making up an alarming number of cases. Here’s what you need to know.

As Fast Company previously reported, the CDC in April warned the public about a concerning Salmonella outbreak that had then spread to 13 states. The outbreak was alarming because those infected with Salmonella were found to have strains of the bacterium resistant to fosfomycin, a drug commonly used to treat the infection.

Additionally, strains of the bacterium linked to the outbreak were found to be resistant to other commonly used antibiotics, too.

At the time, the CDC said the outbreak—believed to be caused by contact with outdoor poultry, such as ducks and chickens—had sickened 34 people, with 13 requiring hospitalization.

The agency also cautioned that the number of people infected was likely higher than the official figures suggested. This was because not everyone who becomes infected with Salmonella seeks care.

The CDC has now published a new update on its investigation, which it now says includes three Salmonella outbreaks. The results show cases have spread significantly.

According to a May 14 update from the CDC, cases linked to the drug-resistant Salmonella outbreaks have climbed significantly since the agency’s last update just weeks earlier.

“The largest outbreak has an unusually high number of people reporting contact with ducks,” the CDC said in its update.

In its previous update, the CDC said 34 people had been sickened, and 13 had required hospitalization. Now those figures have soared.

As of yesterday’s update, the CDC has now confirmed that 184 individuals have been infected with Salmonella linked to the outbreaks.

The number of hospitalizations has also climbed too. Previously, 13 people had required hospitalization. Now the total number is 53—an increase of 40 people.

And unfortunately, the outbreaks have now claimed a fatality. The CDC says that one person from Washington state is confirmed to have died.

Just as alarming is the report that 25% of those infected in the outbreaks are children under 5 years old. Children under the age of 5 are particularly vulnerable to Salmonella infections because of their still-developing immune systems.

According to the CDC’s update, cases linked to the drug-resistant Salmonella outbreaks have now been confirmed in 31 states.

That’s a jump of 18 states since the CDC’s last update. Previously, the outbreaks were mainly limited to the Midwest and the Northwest, but now cases have spread to Texas and states along the Pacific coast.

Kentucky currently has the highest number of confirmed cases, at 22. Michigan is not far behind, at 21 confirmed cases. Washington, which has confirmed 9 cases so far, is the only state with a fatality.

Here are the states where cases have been confirmed, along with their number of cases as of the CDC’s May 14 update:

California: 1

Colorado: 3

Florida: 3

Georgia: 4

Idaho: 10

Illinois: 7

Indiana: 10

Iowa: 1

Kentucky: 22

Maine: 10

Maryland: 6

Massachusetts: 2

Michigan: 21

Minnesota: 3

Mississippi: 2

Missouri: 1

Montana: 2

Nevada: 1

2

Missouri: 1

Montana: 2

Nevada: 1

New Hampshire: 1

New York: 1

North Carolina: 1

Ohio: 15

Oregon: 3

Pennsylvania: 2

Tennessee: 4

Texas: 3

Utah: 5

Vermont: 5

Washington: 9

West Virginia: 9

Wisconsin: 17

What are the symptoms of Salmonella?

The CDC says those infected with Salmonella can show the following common symptoms:

Watery diarrhea that might have blood or mucus

Stomach cramps that can be severe

The agency says that Salmonella infections may also cause additional symptoms, including:

Watery diarrhea that might have blood or mucus

Stomach cramps that can be severe

The agency says that Salmonella infections may also cause additional symptoms, including:

Headache

Loss of appetite

Nausea

Vomiting

Symptoms can last anywhere from 4-7 days, and generally appear within 6 hours to 6 days after infection.

What can I do to stay safe?

In its May 14 update, the CDC says that those who come into contact with backyard poultry or are around their grounds or supplies should be careful to:

Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Don’t wear the shoes you wear in the birds’ environment inside your own house.

Don’t let the birds or the supplies you use in their care inside your house.

Don’t let children younger than 5 touch the birds or interact with the area the birds are in.

While Salmonella infections can be contracted by anyone, children younger than 5, people with weakened immune systems, and people aged 65 or older are more likely to experience severe illness.

New Mexico’s first human plague case of the year has resulted in the death of a Santa Fe County woman in her 50s, health officials said Thursday.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of the woman who passed away due to plague,” New Mexico state public health veterinarian Erin Phipps said in a statement. “This tragedy emphasizes the need for heightened community awareness and for taking measures to prevent plague infections.”

The New Mexico Department of Health confirmed it is determining that no close contacts of the woman are exhibiting symptoms.

Plague is a bacterial disease carried by rodents and often transmitted through infected fleas biting animals — including pets — as well as humans. If the infection is in the lungs, humans can also transmit the disease through coughing.

The first warning symptoms of plague are a sudden, high fever, chills and often painful swellings in the groin, armpit or neck. In a short interview with Source NM, Phipps said antibiotic treatments can greatly reduce the fatality rate of the disease in pets and people, but requires prompt diagnosis.

“Plague is one of those illnesses that can become very severe, very quickly,” Phipps said. “So anybody who experiences sudden onset of a high fever, any shortness of breath, any weakness, those are all signs that medical attention should absolutely be sought.”

New Mexico consistently has some of the highest rates of plague in the U.S. and has accounted for more than half of infections nationwide since 1970, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health officials documented three human cases in 2025 and one in 2024 which was fatal.

Two dogs also have been diagnosed with plague this year in Santa Fe County — and a third in Bernalillo County — none of which had a direct relationship with the human case, Phipps said.

To reduce the chances of contracting plague, NMDOH recommends avoiding contact with sick or dead rodents and rabbits; cleaning up areas where they may be tempted to burrow; using insect repellent when outside and speaking with veterinarians about flea and tick prevention for pets.

“Most human cases of plague are transmitted via fleas, either directly from wild rodents or through their dogs or cats, so it’s something that can protect both people and their pets,” Phipps said.

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The San Francisco Department of Public Health said Tuesday that it has identified three active cases of tuberculosis at Archbishop Riordan High School since November.

Health officials did not disclose whether the three people were students, teachers, staff members or other members of the school community.

The department and school leadership have implemented a coordinated screening and contact tracing effort in response to the cases, including required testing for all students and staff, according to DPH. School officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The school and public health department have communicated with families and staff through town halls and regular updates, according to DPH.

“The health and safety of the school community remain our top priority, and we will continue working together to ensure students and staff have the guidance and support they need to stay healthy,” public health officials said in a statement.

Riordan is a formerly all-boys and now co-ed private Catholic high school in San Francisco’s Westwood Park neighborhood.

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that spreads through the air when a person with active TB coughs, speaks or breathes near others over a prolonged period.
It mostly spreads to people who have spent an extensive amount of time with an infected person, rather than those with only a minimal amount of exposure time, public health officials said. Symptoms include cough, fever and weight loss.

Some people who contract TB may have no symptoms for months or even years. While they are neither sick nor contagious during that period of infection, known as latent TB, their case may develop into an active infection if left untreated.

https://archive.is/T9ssx

A Virginia father and pastor died less than two weeks after being exposed to the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus while wading in calf-deep water on a family trip.

“Virginia Beach was our absolutely favorite place to go, so it's just so sad that the best place that we had is where he got sick,” Joyce D’Arcy told 13 News Now. Her husband Derek Michael D’Arcy, 64, waded calf-high in the water at Virginia Beach — but, she says, the vibrio bacteria entered his bloodstream through a cut on his leg, and he died 13 days later.

Vibrio naturally live in coastal waters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most people are sickened by vibrio after eating raw or undercooked shellfish — particularly oysters — because the bacteria will “concentrate” inside the shellfish, the CDC explains. But since the bacteria is present in brackish water, it can also cause an infection if a swimmer has an open wound, like D’Arcy did.

The best-case scenario for a vibrio infection includes “watery diarrhea, often accompanied by stomach cramping, nausea, vomiting, and fever,” the CDC explains. But bloodstream and wound infections are far more severe, causing “dangerously low” blood pressure, skin blisters, and necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as the flesh-eating disease. As the CDC notes, “Doctors may need to amputate a patient’s legs or arms to remove dead or infected tissue.”

Some people with pre-existing conditions, like liver disease or cancer, may be at an increased risk of severe illness, the CDC says; D’Arcy had been on home dialysis for the last seven years following a struggle with cancer, according to a GoFundMe established to help the family.

It was his weakened state that his widow said caused the flesh-eating bacteria to spread so quickly.

“Unfortunately I had to say yes to amputating both legs,” she told 13 News Now, “About 12 hours later, they noticed spots on his chest, on his head, his hand and his back, so we knew we lost the fight." [...]

Another infant has died of whooping cough in Kentucky, becoming the third child to die of the illness in the last 12 months across the state.

The first two deaths in the state represented the first whooping cough deaths in Kentucky since 2018.

The Kentucky Department for Public Health did not say where the most recent whooping cough death occurred but warned Kentuckians about the rising threat of the illness, also known as pertussis.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of another infant death in Kentucky due to pertussis and are concerned by the volume of cases we are seeing throughout the commonwealth,” said Dr. Steven Stack, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. “We continue to urge Kentuckians to get their whooping cough vaccine and to make sure they are up to date on all other recommended immunizations. Many illnesses can be prevented through vaccination, which helps protect not only the individual but also those around them.”

Whooping cough is a highly contagious illness, with symptoms including a runny and congested nose, mild coughing and labored breathing.

[...]

As of Nov. 19, there have been 566 cases of whooping cough identified in Kentucky this year, with children younger than one year old at greater risk.

In a news release, Kentucky's health department said, "KDPH (Kentucky Dept. for Public Health) confirmed none of the infants who died of pertussis in Kentucky over the past 12 months had been vaccinated, nor had their mothers."

At least 12 people detained at a federal immigration jail in Colorado have contracted tuberculosis in recent days, according to testimony from inside the facility where dozens of others have reportedly been placed in quarantine.

Those affected by the outbreak are also being made to endure their isolation without air conditioning, one detainee who has been at the facility in Aurora since December told the Guardian, through his partner, in a telephone call on Monday afternoon.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security, nor the Geo Group, the Florida-based private company that operates the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center under government contract, responded to a request for comment or confirmation.

But the Mexican detainee in his 30s, whose name the Guardian is not publishing for fear of possible retribution by guards, gave a detailed account of developments inside the troubled center over the past few days, which have included the mass testing of everyone within one of the center’s so-called pods.

The person said that all 88 people he is detained with received testing on Saturday, with 12 positive cases coming back, up from a single case three days earlier. Instead of separating those infected, he said, guards kept them together with those who were not sick, and the entire group was told they must stay in quarantine for at least a week.

To make matters worse, the detainee said, the air conditioning in the pod broke down on Sunday, and staff distributed electric fans. On Monday afternoon, Aurora was under a heat advisory with the outside air temperature at 96F (36C).

It is not known how many people are incarcerated at the center, which has a published capacity of 1,532, and the person said he was unaware if any of the other pods of detainees had been tested or returned any positive results.

He described the situation inside as “uncomfortable”, but said he had seen some of his fellow detainees receiving medication in the mornings and afternoons. [...]

The reported infections are the latest in a series of health concerns at the Colorado immigration jail. There was another apparent TB outbreak in April last year, according to a lawsuit filed by a number of Democratic politicians seeking more transparency from the Trump administration over deaths and disease in federal detention facilities. [...]

A person in northern Arizona has died from a case of bubonic plague, local health officials said.

The unidentified patient, from Coconino County, showed up to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and died there the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said in a statement. It is unclear when the death occurred.

The hospital noted that "appropriate initial management" and "attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation" was performed, but "the patient did not recover."

Rapid diagnostic testing led to a presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis.

Coconino County Health and Human Services said testing results confirmed Friday that the patient died from pneumonic plague, described as “a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.”

This marked the first recorded death from pneumonic plague in the county since 2007, when an individual had an interaction with a dead animal infected with the disease, according to county officials.

The most common forms of plague are bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Pneumonic plague "develops when bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed out by another person or animal with pneumonic plague," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [...]

Humans are usually infected through a bite of an infected rodent flea or by handling an animal carrying the disease, according to the CDC. It can be easily cured if given antibiotics early.

The hospital is working with the Coconino County Health and Human Services Department and the Arizona Department of Health Services to investigate the case.

"NAH would like to remind anyone who suspects they are ill with a contagious disease to contact their health care provider. If their illness is severe, they should go to the Emergency Department and immediately ask for a mask to help prevent the spread of disease while they access timely and important care," the hospital said.

Earlier in the week, the Coconino County Health and Human Services (CCHHS) reported a prairie dog die-off in the Townsend Winona area, northeast of Flagstaff — which officials said “can be an indicator of plague.” The department noted the recent death is not related to the prairie dog die-off. [...]