Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Deadly bug hits beaches
February 4 2012 at 10:23am
By Lyse Comins
A Durban doctor, who contracted a deadly flesh-eating bacteria through a cut on his leg while surf-skiing in the ocean, is lucky to be alive and not to have lost the limb.
Dr Peter Breedt of Hillcrest, a surf-ski enthusiast, is one of several people who have got sick after surfing or swimming at city beaches in recent months.
And, as we enter one of the hottest months of the year, one of the country?s leading water-quality experts, microbiologist Professor Eugene Cloete, dean of Stellenbosch University?s Science Department, has warned about the dangers of swimming in the sea if one has cuts, wounds or chronic liver disease.
Breedt said that, together with a medical colleague, he had diagnosed that the naturally occurring bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, had eaten away the tissue of his foot after he had gone paddle-skiing from Ushaka Beach to the Bluff and back, in November. His wound has still not healed.
More...
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/deadly-bug-hits-beaches-1.1227227
February 4 2012 at 10:23am
By Lyse Comins
A Durban doctor, who contracted a deadly flesh-eating bacteria through a cut on his leg while surf-skiing in the ocean, is lucky to be alive and not to have lost the limb.
Dr Peter Breedt of Hillcrest, a surf-ski enthusiast, is one of several people who have got sick after surfing or swimming at city beaches in recent months.
And, as we enter one of the hottest months of the year, one of the country?s leading water-quality experts, microbiologist Professor Eugene Cloete, dean of Stellenbosch University?s Science Department, has warned about the dangers of swimming in the sea if one has cuts, wounds or chronic liver disease.
Breedt said that, together with a medical colleague, he had diagnosed that the naturally occurring bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, had eaten away the tissue of his foot after he had gone paddle-skiing from Ushaka Beach to the Bluff and back, in November. His wound has still not healed.
More...
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/deadly-bug-hits-beaches-1.1227227