Be careful to avoid this risk when eating seafood

You think that a "medical legend" is a "medical legend" because you got pricked on your hand by seafood, but it is actually a "sad story" that really happened in Dongguan, Guangdong. Some time ago, an old man in Dongguan was accidentally pricked on his left hand by a shrimp while washing shrimps while cooking on his 81st birthday. Since there was no obvious pain reaction and no wounds at the time, the old man did not care. As a result, two days later, the old man's left upper limb suddenly swelled and hurt. After being sent to the hospital, it was shown that the left upper limb was necrotic and he was admitted to the ICU. After testing, the old man was infected with marine Vibrio vulnificus, and finally the old man saved his life by amputation. It is horrifying that a finger needs to be amputated to save his life just because it was pricked by a shrimp. So Tadpole Jun searched for "Vibrio vulnificus" and found that this is not an isolated case. First, an old man's skin was punctured because of cleaning seafood:

Then another old man was stung by a fish fin and suffered from necrotizing fasciitis:

There are also cases of amputation caused by playing at the beach:

Everyone's infection method is very similar: the wound comes into contact with seafood or seawater, resulting in severe pain, swelling and other clinical reactions. This infection method does not seem complicated, but the mortality rate is high, which makes people afraid to get close to the sea or even eat seafood. What are the hazards of this marine Vibrio vulnificus, its infection routes and susceptible populations? Today, Tadpole will lead everyone to "discuss"!

1

Deadly marine bacterium Vibrio vulnificus

Marine Vibrio vulnificus has a very strong killing power among bacteria and is known as the "silent killer in the ocean". It is mostly found in seawater and seabed sediments. Once the bacteria enter the body, 75% of patients will die of organ failure within 48 hours of admission to the hospital. There are two main ways of infection. One is eating raw and cold seafood or incompletely processed and cooked shellfish. The bacteria carried on the food can easily cause sepsis, thereby inducing death. The other is when injured skin comes into contact with seawater or seafood carrying seawater. The bacteria spread rapidly through the damaged skin, causing sepsis with a high mortality rate.

2

Susceptible population

Although marine Vibrio vulnificus is very dangerous, for healthy people with strong disease resistance, infection with Vibrio vulnificus generally has mild symptoms or even no disease.
In the cases we mentioned above, most of the patients were of a certain age, and their immunity and resistance were relatively weak, which is why such serious consequences occurred. Although there are cases of serious infection among young people, the premise is that these young people themselves have certain underlying diseases, such as patients with chronic liver disease, renal insufficiency, diabetes, blood diseases, and frequent alcoholics. For these people, once infected, they will begin to develop symptoms within 48 hours, and their "attack route" is complex and the clinical manifestations are "shocking."
When patients are infected with marine Vibrio vulnificus, the enzymes produced by the bacteria can spread quickly and destroy tissues, causing congestion and edema in the tissues, blocking small blood vessels in the skin and subcutaneous areas, leading to ischemic necrosis of the skin, and thus causing "necrotizing fasciitis". The bacteria carried by this inflammation can produce a large amount of gas when they multiply. These gases fill the subcutaneous space and cause obvious swelling of the tissues. The specific clinical manifestations are redness and swelling of the skin near the wound, swelling of the limbs, pain or fever, and in severe cases, bleeding blisters, blackening and necrosis of the skin and other symptoms.
Even if they go to the doctor, if the patient is not aware that their wound has come into contact with seawater or seafood, it is easy for the doctor to miss or misdiagnose. Some patients have already fallen into a coma when they are admitted to the hospital. At this time, the doctor can only test the patient's feces, wounds or blood, and waiting for the test takes a certain amount of time. Since Vibrio vulnificus progresses rapidly, the waiting process is likely to miss the best time for diagnosis and treatment, resulting in more serious consequences. If the patient has a certain understanding of the symptoms and uses antibiotics for treatment in time when the symptoms first appear, most patients can recover in about two weeks.

3

Prevention Tips

Whether you are a strong young person or an elderly person with declining immunity, if you want to effectively avoid marine Vibrio vulnificus, remember to learn the following tips~ First of all, when handling seafood, be sure to wear gloves. Gloves are equivalent to a protective film that can prevent sharp parts of seafood from stabbing your arms. Without wounds, there will naturally be no infection. If you have some wounds caused by other bumps on your body, remember not to play in the sea water before the wounds heal.
Secondly, you should eat less raw and cold food. Parasites in raw and cold food carry a lot of bacteria, which will be separated from the food and cause serious burden on the body organs. If you are accidentally stabbed by shrimp or crab and the wound bleeds, first squeeze out the blood, then wash it with water, and disinfect it with alcohol, and then seek medical attention in time. As long as you follow the doctor's advice, there will be no problem~ Seafood has many hidden skills, so please eat it and cherish it~
END

Review expert: Zhang Yuhong, associate chief physician of dermatology, Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University.
Tadpole Musical Notation original article/reprinted with source editor/Xiaoxi Tushuo