A warning from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health may have some beachgoers exercising a little more caution as they try to escape the August heat.
Residents and visitors at Buzzards Bay, a community on the south end of Cape Cod, are on alert after officials identified a person with a rare, flesh-eating bacterial infection in the area. Officials said the bacteria, known as Vibrio, could pose a risk to others in nearby coastal waters.
The Vibrio species, which includes Vibrio vulnificus, can cause severe and life-threatening infections. Some can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, which kills off flesh around an open wound.
Many people with a Vibrio vulnificus infection can get seriously ill and need intensive care or limb amputation. About 1 in 5 people with this infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill.
But it's not the first time this bug has made its way to the Massachusetts bay: In a news release, the department of health said there have been seven cases of the illness over the last seven years among residents of the commonwealth, including four who were exposed in Massachusetts.
