By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
THE government is concerned about the possibility of a flesh eating bacteria thriving in Bahamian waters, said Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray yesterday.
However, by testing water samples they have yet to find any trace of the water borne bacteria, called vibrio vulnificus, Mr Gray said. So far, there have not been enough reported cases of contraction to spark alarm.
Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez confirmed last week that a man who was infected with the bacteria was being treated in the intensive care unit at a private hospital.
“For the time being I don’t think there is any cause for concern,” Mr Gray said, “(because) there is no emperical evidence on which we can rely. We gotta be careful how we approach public information.
“My understanding is that they have taken a sample of water from around which the man may have bathed (but) there was nothing found in that sample.
“Ocean water keeps moving it isn’t stagnant so something was in there today, tomorrow it might be in Cuba, so it just keeps moving so it makes the test even more difficult if there are recurring incidences then we have what we deem to be concerning, but from all indications and the information relayed to me there is no cause for alarm,” Minister Gray said.
“We have heard,” he added, “of an incident that the tourist claims might be from a bacteria which he was infected by in the Freeport area. I have not been able myself to find any evidence that it happened in Freeport.
“We are looking into it and unless we are sure, you know people make allegations all the time about things and if it is a single incident it will be very difficult to trace it and so unless there are other incidences that are traced back to that first alleged incident, then it may be a very difficult thing to put your finger on, but we are looking into it and if it ever occurs again it will give us a better opportunity to conclude that there is something to be concerned about. My understanding is that this bacteria was found in the Florida area and I am not sure that this person who claims to have contracted it here was also in Florida we really gotta get to the bottom of it.”
The Minister added that the Ministry of the Environment is also attempting to “get to the bottom” of the matter.
This year, rising cases of the bacterial infection have been reported in Florida, where public health officials have been working to increase awareness and reduce risks relating to the bacteria.
Among healthy people, ingestion of vibrio vulnificus can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and inflammation of the skin.
Persons with compromised immune systems can have the bacteria infect their bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness characterised by fever and chills, decreased blood pressure, and blistering skin lesions.
Foreign health officials say vibrio vulnificus bloodstream infections are fatal in about 50 per cent of cases.
According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) the organism is a natural inhabitant of warm coastal waters. Infection can occur after a wound is exposed to warm coastal waters where the vibrio vulnificus organism is growing. Infection may also be acquired by eating raw or under cooked seafood from those waters.
Comments
John 11 years ago
NO FISH OR CONCH FOR NOW!
proudloudandfnm 11 years ago
SO Minister of Agriculture acknowledges the problem but Minister of Health says it's a rumor? WTH?
jt 11 years ago
If you read the American victim's tripadvisor thread (pleading the Bahamas govt. to investigate!), he mentions he also swam in another very warm, poorly circulated, nutrient-rich body of water: "The Ruins" at Atlantis. Sounds like pretty good vibrio habitat to me...
banker 11 years ago
Have you ever been to Bonefish National Park in the south of New Providence? You see Haitians swimming there all the time in the flats during the hot weather. That would be my guess as to where one would find the bacteria if it is in Bahamian waters.
John 11 years ago
@concernedcitizen..I guess it was the Haitians swimming that caused the outbreak in Florida as well?
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
i would think the Atlantis swimming areas are chlorinated
lazybor 11 years ago
So, no solutions in sight...
http://tinyurl.com/c7l9ck6" width="1">
John 11 years ago
There are several 'raw sewerage' areas around New Providence that needs to be addressed immediately before some disease does not break out on the island: As you pass the park between the two Paradise Island bridges, (Malcolm Park) there is a huge green storage tank and you can smell the sewerage. Information is that raw sewerage from Paradise Island is treated here, then pumped into the ocean. This is less than a stones throw from where Potters Cay vendors store their fish and conch in the sea. Then there is a poorly covered drain near the western entrance to the fish fry. Sewerage is constantly flowing and the strong smell of sewerage emanates from this drain day and night. It is suspected that the contents run directly into the sea, untreated. Right in the area where vendors store their conchs to sell. Then as you pass the new Bah Mar site just opposite the Cable Beach police station, the stench of sewerage is so strong it tends to overcome you in the otherwise fresh sea air. Is there some open sewer on the property where the workers are housed? Also further down Cable Beach by the post office and opposite the service entrance to Sandals. There is another large tank that is being used for for sewerage treatment. Just a quick stop to pick up someone from Sandals and you will leave with a sick stomach or feeling ill. How does the people who work in the post office manage all day? Even to eat lunch? I guess when tourist pass these spots they assume that the taxi driver has let loose a few home made bombs.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
@ john Paradise island has a treatment plant on Paradise island where the sewage is treated and then turned into grey water for landscaping etc ,,,Paradise sewage is not pumped to Malcom park and then into the ocean ..Seriously where do you come up w/ this stuff .I was a resident on PI from 1982 until 2004 and was good friends w/ one of their senior men at there water and sewage ,Paul Major ,,
John 11 years ago
I assume your friends who are so happy with BTC's profit margins also live on Paradise Island..it figures..may that's why you cannot name any
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
There you go trippin again , i now live on a family island . I ,m not naming any more people that sell top up and are happy ,you can ride your OCD about phone card margin yourself , your the only person i,ve heard talk or write about it ,,ride that pony
John 11 years ago
how many different names do you post under. Never mind the reparation money, Our God and Savior has promised to reward us for what was done to use as a people. Our reward will be in such a way that no man can take it away. Where are you going to hide when the world is on fire?
banker 11 years ago
Is this is more letting the cat out of the bag with fairy tale facts like BTC have cash flow problems? I still live on PI, and when we are sitting on the balcony, and sometimes the sound of the treatment plant pumps are annoying.
However the sewerage treatment plant at the corner of Paradise Island Drive and Ocean Club Drive does provide all of the irrigation water that makes Paradise Island a little paradise. It also has the best display of bougainvillea on PI against the green privacy fence. The nice thing is that PI also has a sub-generating plant also keeps the current on. During power failures and load shedding, we go out on the balcony and look at dark Nassau, and thank our lucky stars that Sol Kerzner blessed the Bahamas.
John 11 years ago
Don't you have anything better to do during a power outage, concerned citizen, than to look at a dark island? What a life
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
@Banker ,yeah that bougainvilla is nice , i can,t afford PI now,that was my family but it was nice growing up there ,Harbour dr ,right before George Myers house ..Yeah thanks goodness for Kerzner ..
jt 11 years ago
@concerned citizen: The Ruins at Atlantis is a fish-filled seawater snorkeling site - shallow, warm and loaded with fish waste which fuels algal and bacterial growth.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
that could breed fungy
John 11 years ago
Does anyone disagree that the area by Malcolm Park has a serious offensive odour problem that may be a potential health hazard?
John 11 years ago
Grey water is water treated and recycled from face basins, showers and baths, Sewerage is basically the stuff that comes from the toilet, human fecal matter is not recycled or mixed with water to be treated as grey water. The solid part, sluge use in fertilizers has been linked to Parkinson's disease and so this use has been discontinued. Sewerage is treated to neutralize anything that may be contained in it including feces, detergents chemicals and other waste matter. The big green tank by Malcolm park *is * a sewerage holding tank. There are no sewers in the area and the tank does service parts of Paradise Island. It was originally built back in the 1970's when some of the first hotels were built on Paradise Island. Singapore is the only country in the world that has tested the use of sewerage water for recycling as grey water. After the sewerage is treated it is pumped in a deep well that leads out to the ocean.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
Whatever you say Johnny ,maybe those foreigners could be asked not to cr@p while there here ..
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
Sounds like a plan, get rid of all the foreign crap. That's what causing all of our problems anyway
John 11 years ago
As for BTC/C&W: When BaTelCo introduced the QuikCell phone card more than a decade ago, vendors were given a 35% profit margin to share between wholesalers and retailers. Remember the distribution channel is not just New Providence but cards are sold in even the most remote islands in the Bahamas. Nevertheless the margin was later reduced to 25%. Since Cable and Wireless took over BTC some 3 years ago, there have been reductions in vendor profits that brought the margin down from 25% to the current 9 percent. Yet there are talks about another reduction in 2014. The sales on phone cards has virtually doubled since BaTelcCo introduced them 12 years ago. So if BaTelCo could have realize a profit paying vendors four times what C&W now pays how do you explain the need for further reductions, except greed and/or a cash flow problem? While BTC does have one or two promotions a year that allow customers discounts on phone calls, the rates on prepaid calls remain basically unchanged..maybe the grand wizard has an explanation: Some say BTC is trying to force the vendors out the market to make way for the new retail store format it is introducing.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
@JOHN ,I,M sure its some old white men sitting around in a room ,thinking if these young black guys keep making so much selling phone cards they will soon be moving into lyford cay ..The white man is so wicked johnny ,,,,,,,,,,,OF COURSE I,M BEING TOTALLY SARCASTIC AND FEEDING YOUR EXTREME XENOPHOPIA ,,,This is about bacteria ,,you need to get some meds to help w/ that phone card thingy you got going on ..
John 11 years ago
Actually it was Marlon Johnson who said, "the card vendors already made enough money" AND no, I don't know if he has an uncle named TOM!
jackflash 11 years ago
John is right about BTC and the phone cards.
It is a little known fact that the substance which is scratched off the phone card is hazardous to your health.
When it gets into the water it turns into vibrio vulnificus.
So, BTC is to blame for this and it will soon be revealed (by John) that this is the reason why Tony Rice resigned as head of BTC. PGC knows the facts but is waiting for John to leak it out so that PGCs hands are clean.
And having said this - that means that HAI takes all the blame because he (and the red shirts) sold BTC to the evil foreigners.
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
@Jack...you had me hooked on "John is right". Thanks for tying the pieces together, that vibrio is nothing to play with. That is the last phone card that I buy! I'm now pushing for Dr Gomez to quarantine all phone card vendors.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
@ jOHN could come into the 21st century and put down a 100 dollar deposit ,go post paid and pay as little as 12 cents a minute ,then he wouldn,t have to touch those vibrio tainted cards whitey is pushing ,,lmao
John 11 years ago
Better than playing with yourself like you, using different names to respond to your own posts..talk about meds! Some Bahamian must really given you the shaft to have you this bitter against all Bahamians, Blacks especially.
concernedcitizen 11 years ago
@john seriously where do you get this crap ,,"using different names to respond to your own post " Why do you constantly bring up race ??
Sign in to comment
OpenID