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The devastating impact from Hurricane Harvey continues, as mysterious flesh-eating bacteria has claimed a second life in Texas earlier this month.

As reported by the New York Times, a 31-year-old man from Galveston, Texas has died from flesh-eating bacteria. The man helped to repair homes following the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and is the second victim of the flesh-eating bacteria since September when 77-year-old Nancy Reed also died from the same disease.

Via NY Times:

The man went to the hospital on Oct. 10 with a seriously infected wound on his upper left arm, the Galveston County Health District said in a statement on Monday. He was told he had necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that kills soft tissue. He died on Oct. 16.

Relatives who spoke to local news organizations identified the man as Josue Zurita. “He’s a very caring person,” Brenda Avalos, his cousin’s wife, told KHOU. “He has a lot of friends here in Galveston that love him. Everybody is very sad. He was very young and always smiling.”

It was the second reported death of a person from the infection since Hurricane Harvey swept through parts of Texas in August, inundating residential areas with filthy floodwaters that alarmed health officials.

Dr. Philip Keiser, an infectious disease specialist at the Galveston County Local Health Authority, gave the specifics of how Zurita contracted the disease, stating “It’s most likely this person’s infection occurred when bacteria from Harvey debris or floodwater entered his body through a wound or cut.”

Reed’s death in September had multiple similarities to Zurita’s and was described as “[dying from] necrotizing fasciitis after she fell inside a flooded home in Houston’s Kingwood community and broke her arm, the bacteria entered her body through cuts.”

Zurita’s funeral service was held on October 22nd, he leaves behind a wife and a daughter.

 

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Flesh-Eating Bacteria Causes Second Death In Texas Following Hurricane Harvey  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com