FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A restaurant customer in South Florida died of a bacterial infection after eating raw oysters. A Pensacola man died this month. Both cases involved oysters from Louisiana.
Gary Oreal, who manages the Rustic Inn, told the South Florida SunSentinel that the man who died years ago worked at the restaurant famous for garlic crabs.
Over the course of 60 years, we have served a couple of billion oysters, and we never had anyone get sick like this guy did, Oreal said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Vibrio bacteria doesn't make oysters taste, smell or smell different. About 80,000 people in the U.S. get vibriosis every year, and about 100 people die from it, according to the agency.
Inspectors from the Florida Department of Health examined the restaurant's kitchen and examined its oyster inventory the day after the man became ill, Oreal told the newspaper.
He said that the oysters being served are from Louisiana and we were allowed to continue to sell oysters. If there was a problem with the oyster bed, we would know it because others would have gotten sick. The restaurant has a sign warning patrons about the risks of eating raw shellfish.
Oysters are the top of the mountain for dangerous foods to eat, Oreal said. I've eaten them my entire life, and will continue. The Florida Department of Health says 26 people have been infected with the bacteria and six of them died after eating raw shellfish, including oysters, so far this year. In 2021, 10 people died out of 34 people who had been sickened. There were seven deaths among the 36 who became ill in 2020.
A man died last week in Pensacola after contracting the bacteria from oysters he bought at a market, according to the Pensacola News JournalPensacola News Journal. The oyster came from Louisiana, officials said.
Infections linked to the bacteria are common in oysters and raw seafood during the summer months when water temperatures are warmer, according to University of West Florida professor Robert Wes Farr.
Farr said that the risk is still there, although the serious infection is rare.