New York Fish Markets Hit With Rare Bacterial Infection

Revelation 6:7,8 NCV When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!"8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

A rare bacterium has been discovered at fish markets in multiple New York boroughs and has been confirmed to have infected at least 30 people.

Health officials say they do not know the source of the outbreak.  The bacterium, Mycobacterium marinum, is common in fish but does not normally infect humans.  Markets in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan have been found to have the bacterium.

The infection causes bumps under the skin or tender lesions.  Once the bumps turn into open wounds, they won’t heal on their own.  If the infections are not cleared at that point, they can go deeper into the skin and require surgery.

Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control, said a part of the problem in finding the source is that the infection can take weeks to show even the most mild symptoms.

A doctor in the Chinatown section of New York said that many patients who came to him said they were infected at a site where they were cut by a fish bone.  One victim said they had cut themselves on a lobster.

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