Flesh-Eating Infection Strikes Fishermen, Surfer In Volusia

October 23, 2003

local6.comFlesh-Eating Infection Strikes Fishermen, Surfer In Volusia

POSTED: 6:22 p.m. EDT October 20, 2003

UPDATED: 7:56 a.m. EDT October 23, 2003

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Several fishermen and at least one surfer in Volusia

County, Fla., have reportedly contracted a mysterious infection that eats at

their flesh, according to a Local 6 News report.

Mysterious Infection Strikes 8 In Volusia

Doctor Jeff Parks, an Ormond Beach dermatologist, said he has treated eight

patients, including two who were hospitalized, in the last two months with the

painful and contagious crater-like lesions.

Parks says the disease has been found in patients who had been in the ocean.

Bacterial infections are common among commercial fishermen and others who handle

fish.

But Parks says he is perplexed about why so many people contracted this

particular strain of bacteria.

Surfer Gerald Harbrodt was recently treated after an infection called

methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, entered his body through an

open wound as he swam in the Atlantic Ocean, said his mother, Jonelle Harbrodt.

Harbrodt said the infection spread across her son's body in less than a day.

" There was a large space vacant of skin, and it was oozing, " Harbrodt said.

MRSA bacteria create the same life-threatening lesions experts are treating on

turtles and fish in Central Florida, according to Local 6 News reporter Tarik

Minor.

Fisherman Jim Freeman told Local 6 News that he knows of eight fishing boat

captains infected with MRSA.

" It starts out as a white pimple, but the minute you pop that pimple it starts

boring, " Freeman said. " It will go to the bone. Doctors say once it goes to the

bone, you either have to cut your arm off or cut your leg off. "

The exact cause of this type of MRSA is not known, according to Local 6 News.

Health officials said MRSA infections must be treated immediately.

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