According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), raw oysters are responsible for an average of 85 hospitalizations and 35
deaths each year nationwide, mostly in the Gulf coast region which includes
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The culprit: a bacterium called Vibrio vulnificus
that occurs naturally in warm seawaters and is the leading cause of death
related to eating seafood in the United States, according to the American
Academy of Family Physicians. For someone whose immune system is compromised, V.
vulnificus can cause severe symptoms including fever, chills, septic shock
(when a body-wide infection leads to dangerously low blood pressure) and
blistering skin lesions, explains Kristen Nordlund, public affairs officer at
the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC.
Such folks have a 50 percent risk of dying from an infection due to V.
vulnificus, which can happen as quickly as within two days of eating raw
seafood.
For this reason, people with diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS,
kidney disease or liver, stomach or blood disorders should never eat raw
oysters or raw seafood in general. The same is true for anyone who’s had an
organ transplant and for pregnant
women, says Lauren Sucher, spokesperson for the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
A healthy person who’s exposed to V. vulnificus may
experience vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain that’s unpleasant but temporary.
So in general, it’s relatively safe to slurp down a few Blue Points — and even
nutritionally smart: Oysters are a great source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty
acids.
Kill by cooking. The only way to completely avoid
bacteria in oysters is to cook them. “V. vulnificus are not the result
of pollution, so while it’s important to buy oysters from a reputable
fishmonger, eating them from supposedly clean bodies of water or in busy
restaurants that serve them raw all the time does not guarantee protection,”
says Nordlund. To be absolutely safe, bake oysters for 10 minutes at 450
degrees Fahrenheit, broil them 3 inches from the heat source for 3 minutes or
fry them at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 3 minutes.
Forget about months with an “R.” The oft-repeated
advice to eat oysters only in months that contain the letter “R” (September to
April) lives on, yet this recommendation holds no water. The thinking was that
oysters harvested during the colder part of the year would not contain harmful
bacteria that’s found in higher concentrations in warmer months (May to
August). Unfortunately, this bacterium is still found in coastal waters in “R”
months and according to the FDA, 40 percent of cases of V. vulnificus infection occur
at this time.
The nose does not know. Your sniffer can tell when
milk is rancid, but it can’t tell you if an oyster is safe. Oysters
contaminated by V. vulnificus don’t smell or taste “off.” You also can’t
fight this bacterium by dousing oysters in hot sauce or drowning them in vodka
and “shooting” them down the hatch. And once oysters have been shucked from
their shells, they should be cooked before consuming, not eaten raw.