Flesh-Eating Bacteria: Vibrio Vulnificus Lands Florida Man in the Hospital

A Florida man landed in a Jacksonville hospital after coming down with a dangerous bacterial infection known as vibrio vulnificus. Health officials suspect that he is the 27^th person to come down with the coastal bacteria in Florida.

George Clarke, 79, was infected with vibrio vulnificus after a crab bit him Saturday night, according to the Orlando Senteninel, who spoke with his grandson Bob Barstetter.

State health officials have thus far confirmed 26 cases of the bacterial infections this year alone. Nine have been fatal, including one from a Flagler County man who died of the infection just this past Monday.  Henry Konietzky, 59, died of the deadly infection just 28 hours after being exposed to it while setting crab traps in the Halifax River in Volusia County.

"They tried multiple antibiotics, but nothing was touching it. Nothing even fazed it," Debbie Stack, Konietzky's sister-in-law said, according to the Huffington Post.

Clarke is currently receiving treatment for the problem at the Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville.

"This bacteria is so fast moving that it is imperative people know to get to a hospital immediately," Karstetter said.

Volusia County has had two nonfatal cases, one of which was a man who ate raw oysters in Louisiana and became ill when he returned home.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that the vibrio vulnificus is from the same family of bacterial infections that cause cholera.

The bacterium causes abdominal pain and diarrhea in health people, but individuals with comprised immune systems or people with liver disease can experience a critical blood infection that is fatal 50 percent of the time.