Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

Vibrio Vulnificus

Attorney Elliot Olsen of our law firm recently won a wrongful death lawsuit for a family whose loved one died of Vibrio vulnificus after eating raw oysters at an oyster bar in Florida. Elliot represents food poisoning victims nationwide.

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Vibrio Vulnificus and OystersVibrio vulnificus is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera. It normally lives in warm seawater where it can contaminate seafood, including mussels, clams, scallops and oysters. Oysters are especially likely to contain this bacterium. Vibrio vulnificus does not change the taste or smell of oysters and other seafood, so you can't tell whether or not Vibrio vulnificus is present in raw seafood.

Symptoms of Vibrio vulnificus infection include vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. If the bacteria infects the bloodstream, it causes septicemia, a severe and life-threatening illness characterized by fever, chills, nausea, decreased blood pressure (septic shock), and blistering skin lesions. Vibrio vulnificus bloodstream infections are fatal about 60% of the time. Generally, only people with compromised immune systems, especially those with chronic liver disease, develop septicemia from Vibrio vulnificus. Symptoms of septicemia typically develop within 24 hours of ingestion of raw oysters or other raw or undercooked seafood contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus.

Before 2007, there was no national surveillance system for Vibrio vulnificus, but CDC collaborated with the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi to monitor the number of cases of Vibrio vulnificus infection in the Gulf Coast region.  In 2007, infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus and other Vibrio species became nationally notifiable. These infections are referred to as vibriosis.

Sources:
1. CDC, http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/vibriov/

2. Linkous, D. A. and Oliver, J. D. (1999), Pathogenesis of Vibrio vulnificus. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 174: 207–214. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1999.tb13570.x


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