Warning for Poz Swimmers in Coastal Areas

LiveScience website reports that people with compromised immune systems, including those with HIV, should avoid exposing and wounded, pierced or recently tattooed skin to warm seawater in coastal environments, or else cover their wounds with waterproof bandages, according to a press release from the the New York health department. Those with compromised immune systems should also avoid eating raw or undercooked shellfish. The warning comes after three people in the North East of the United States died from a rare bacterial infection which led to necrotising fasciitis.  The bacteria, called Vibrio vulnificus  lives in coastal saltwater and brackish water, meaning a mix of salt and freshwater. The microbe and its cousins in the Vibrio genus are most prevalent in such environments between May and October. People can be exposed to the bacteria when they swim with open wounds or when they eat raw or undercooked shellfish, including oysters.   V. vulnificus can cause life-threatening wound infections that can lead to "flesh-eating."