By Michael A. Smith

The Daily News

Published July 19, 2007

Nothing gets the TV news trucks rolling toward the coast faster than a good “flesh-eating” bacteria story. Well, nothing except hurricanes and shark bites. 

It is news, granted, but the fervor with which the media, TV in particular, typically land on a bacteria story has always been baffling. 

Inevitably, a few days after a hard rain that flushes out the feedlots, chicken farms and hog pens upstream, the health department posts an advisory about fecal coliform bacteria somewhere along the beach. 

Less often, someone becomes infected with vibrio vulnificus bacteria. That’s the stuff TV reporters like to call “flesh eating,” because “flesh-eating bacteria” is more apt to hold you through the commercial break than is vibrio vulnificus. 

In either case, the TV trucks arrive and pretty soon we’re getting calls at The Daily News from people in Conroe wondering whether they should cancel their trips. 

Somehow, the callers have gotten the idea that the beaches are closed because the water’s so rife with this new, clearly lethal and perhaps extraterrestrial organism that a good dousing of salt spray alone may cost you a limb. 

One Houston weekly reported as blunt fact a few summers ago that Galveston beaches had been closed a half-dozen times because of bacteria. The real number of times was zero. As far as we’re aware, no legal means exists to close the beaches because of bacteria. 

People should be mindful of bacteria in the water. There’s an article on the front page today that lays out some facts about it. 

The main points are that the vibrio bacterium is in the water any time the water is warm enough for you to be in. 

Only about 15 people a year are infected with vibrio along the entire Texas coast. It’s not a threat unless you have deep open wounds or a compromised immune system. 

The truth is that bacteria rank somewhere well below malignant melanoma and maybe slightly above jellyfish on the list of beach hazards.

For More Information Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
409-938-2211 or 409-392-0007
kkoopman@gchd.org