Another four people have died after being infected with a flesh-eating bacteria that thrives in coastal waters, officials have said.
Vibrio vulnificus lives in warm water and can enter the body through open wounds, causing pain, redness and swelling before the skin turns black as flesh dies.
In severe cases, it can spread to the blood and cause the fatal complication sepsis.
The fatalities were reported in Louisiana, the second state to reveal deaths from the disease this year, with officials raising the alarm, saying the number was well above the state’s average of about one death from Vibrio every year.
Louisiana also reported 17 hospitalizations from the disease.
The latest figures bring the national tally to eight deaths from Vibrio this year, after four deaths were recorded in Florida earlier this month. A total of 32 infections have also been recorded nationwide across the two states.
Officials warned of an ‘overall increase’ in infections as surface waters in the Gulf have reached 85 Fahrenheit (29 Celsius), an ideal temperature for the bacteria.
Theresa Sokol, an epidemiologist at the Louisiana Department of Health, warned local media channel Fox 8: ‘Vibrio vulnificus can cause particularly severe and even highly fatal infections.
‘We feel like there is an overall increased risk right now. All of those individuals had severe illnesses, and they all required hospitalization.’
No further details were revealed on the latest patients, including their names, ages and where in Louisiana they were infected.
It also wasn’t revealed whether they had any underlying conditions. People who are older or have a weakened immune system are at higher risk from the disease.
The Louisiana Department of Health said 75 percent of the patients were infected via open wounds.
Many cases involve people swimming in warm water with open wounds, but the disease can also be caught from eating contaminated shellfish.
Patients can suffer from diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. It can also be fatal if the disease spreads to the blood.
It wasn’t clear how the patients who died in Louisiana contracted the bacteria, whether it was via open wounds or also via consuming seafood.
Dr David Janz, an associate chief medical officer at a hospital in the state, added to the local station: ‘I personally will take care of sometimes two or three patients a year that have this infection.
‘We certainly see it, but it is not a common infection.
‘Twenty-five percent, or about one in four of those patients, will end up dying from this infection, which is a pretty high number.’
About 150 to 200 people suffer a Vibrio vulnificus infection in the US every year, the CDC says, and one in five patients do not survive the infection.
Cases are typically recorded along the southern US coast, where seas have experienced a rise in temperatures in recent years.
But amid rising temperatures nationwide, infections have also been detected further north.
Last year, cases were detected in New York, Connecticut and North Carolina.
Patients who suffer from the infection may require an amputation to remove the limb that has been infected by the bacteria.
In a previous case, Debbie King, from Florida, was left needing her leg amputated in order to save her life after suffering an infection.
The 72-year-old suffered a cut while climbing onto her friend’s boat in the Gulf in August 2023, but thought nothing of it.
But over the next three days, the cut turned red, blistered, and swelled, leading her to seek help from her doctor.
She was immediately transferred to the hospital where doctors amputated her leg, saying that if they didn’t, she could die.