Health officials launched an investigation to unravel the source of a mysterious bacterial infection that has afflicted commercial fishermen and swimmers in recent months.
Florida’s and Volusia County’s health departments say the fishermen are most likely catching the infection through person-to-person contact, and are downplaying any role the ocean might play in the spread of the disease.
The infection is known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and causes painful and contagious crater-like lesions that start as small blisters and can expand to the size of silver dollars within days.
About 16 people, mostly Port Orange commercial fishermen, have been hospitalized with the infection in Volusia County, according to doctors, commercial fishermen, fleet owners and others.
The bacterial infection also appears to have infected commercial fishermen on the Gulf Coast, and in the Bahamas and Key West, said Bob Jones, executive director of Southeast Fisheries Association, a Tallahassee-based group that represents fishermen in six states.
Bacterial infections are common among commercial fishermen and others who handle fish.
“It certainly doesn’t look like a public-health hazard at this point, and it doesn’t look like this is coming from the ocean,” said Dr. Howard Rodenberg, who heads the Volusia health department.
AP
