Deadly Vibrio vulnificus bacteria surge in coastal waters; 9 deaths reported

Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, an ancient microbial inhabitant of warm saltwater has claimed at least nine lives this season, reminding coastal communities that the sea's generosity is never without condition. Vibrio vulnificus, a bacterium that flourishes in the heat of late summer, has spread through raw oysters and open wounds, striking hardest those whose bodies are least equipped to resist it. The deaths, concentrated in South Carolina and Florida but not confined there, arrive as a quiet reckoning with the invisible life that shares the waters where people swim,