Health Department: Man dies after eating raw oysters at restaurant

SARASOTA, FL (WWSB) – A 71-year-old man has died from a gastro-intestinal illness after consuming flesh eating bacteria on an oyster at a local restaurant.

Florida Health tells ABC7 Sarasota that the man ate the bad oyster on July 8th and died two days later from a gastro-intestinal illness. The name of the restaurant was not released.

Eating seafood or taking a swim in the water may seem like an essential summertime pastime, but you should be careful of the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which pops up more with the heat.

“Vibrio is a bacteria and it lives in saltwater, or brackish water, so any water that has salt in it  and it’s there essentially all of the time,” Said Michael Drennon, who is the Disease Intervention Services Program Manager for Florida Department of Health Sarasota County.

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