⚠️ 🦠 BEACH CLOSED: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Maryland, Kyle Brumfield, joins FOX Weather to discuss the latest increase in ocean bacteria that has forced many beaches to close amid the official start of summer.
Health officials in Florida confirmed the state’s first death from the flesh-eating bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus. The death in Palm Beach County, Florida, is also the first reported Vibrio death in the U.S. thus far in 2026.
Eleven other cases have been confirmed across Florida.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Vibrio bacteria live in warm, coastal waters and infections can cause a number of symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, fever, low blood pressure and blistering skin lesions.
Under a high magnification of 13184X, this digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image depicts a grouping of Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.
(Janice Haney Carr / CDC / FOX Weather)
While the CDC estimates that some 80,000 cases of vibriosis happen across the country each year, some Vibrio species, like Vibrio vulnificus, can cause a severe flesh-destroying infection and the department said roughly one in five people with this kind of infection die.
Health officials say that the bacteria can enter the body through an open wound when swimming in saltwater or brackish water.
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People can also become infected by eating contaminated, raw shellfish — in which case, no open wound is required.
Shucked oyster from Galveston Bay.
(Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle / FOX Weather)
The Florida Health Department has not listed when the Palm Beach County death occurred.
Meanwhile, the Mobile County, Alabama, Health Department confirmed its first case of vibriosis this year back on April 24.
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Connecticut’s Department of Public Health Commissioner told FOX61 that someone contracted Vibrio vulnificus infection in February after eating contaminated oysters that were harvested outside the state.
