Health officials warned people after a Texas man died from consuming raw oysters over the Labor Day holiday.
The victim suffered a deadly flesh-eating bacteria infection after he ate the oysters on Tuesday. He spent days at the hospital before succumbing to the infection by the weekend.
Galveston County health officials said that the man, believed to be in his 30s, had underlying health issues.
“He was taking some drugs that made him immunosuppressed. He also had problems with his liver.”
“The conditions that he had really predisposed him to an overwhelming infection,” Dr. Philip Keiser said.
“We’ve actually gone to the restaurant where he was eating, and we pulled the oysters from the shelf,”
“There are tags on them, so we can identify the lots, and the state is actually analyzing them to see if we can find the bug in a particular lot of oysters.”
The seaborne Vibrio vulnificus bacteria lives in warm, coastal waters and can cause deadly infections if consumed in raw or undercooked shellfish or entered through an open wound.
