A young boy was left covered in open wounds after he was infected with flesh-eating bacteria during a trip to a Maryland beach, his mother said.
Brittany Carey wrote on Facebook that her son developed the red gashes “all over his body” after he went swimming off the coast of Ocean City last week.
When the wounds grew, she took him to the Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, where doctors diagnosed him with Vibrio, a type of bacteria that can cause skin to rot away in a condition called necrotizing fasciitis.
“My little guy got this from being in the bay …,” Carey wrote. “Please be careful out there guys and if you start seeing wounds such as these please get somewhere fast!”
The mom later updated the post to say that her son’s pediatrician said he was healing nicely.
The case comes on the heels of a 77-year-old woman’s death last month after she scraped her leg at a Florida beach and contracted the flesh-eating condition.
Vibrio bacteria can be found in coastal waterways and raw seafood, according to the Centers for Disease Control. There are approximately 80,000 cases of vibriosis each year — with 52,000 coming from ingesting contaminated food, such as oysters, the CDC said.