She dies of a violent infection after eating oysters
Jeannette LeBlanc, a 55-year-old American from Texas , died of an infection after eating oysters containing a meat-eating bacteria, the vibrio, reports the KTLA5 chain .
Texas Woman Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Eating Raw Oysters, Prompting Warning From Family and Friends https://t.co/0ptCJshBdF pic.twitter.com/t6Qgqfo5xA
— KTLA 5 Morning News (@KTLAMorningNews) January 9, 2018
Respiratory distress and red patches
While vacationing in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the southern United States , Texane went to the Westwego market, on the banks of the Mississippi, with her husband and friends. She had bought several dozen oysters and had all eaten them at the next meal.
But after 36 hours, Jeannette LeBlanc began to show the signs of a violent allergic reaction: respiratory distress, red patches on her legs … Her state of health did not cease to deteriorate until it succumbs after 21 days. Doctors were quick to point out the culprit: the vibrio.
A bacterium responsible for cholera
This bacterium, which lives in an aquatic environment, causes, most often, only digestive symptoms. However, some types of vibrios can have far more serious consequences.
Thus, the best known species, vibrio cholerae, is the causative agent of cholera. And two other types, vibrio vulnificus and vibrio parahaemolyticus, can cause skin lesions and septicemia. These so- called “flesh-eating” bacteria release deadly toxins to living cells.
They usually enter the body through open wounds (cuts, scrapes) but sometimes they are also found in seafood and molluscs.
