MANCHESTER, Mo. (AP) — A 54-year-old man died after eating raw oysters from a seafood stand in the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, health officials announced Friday.
Officials are urging the public to dispose of any oysters purchased recently from the business.
The culprit in Thursday's death is the Vibrio bacteria, which doesn’t make an oyster look, smell, or taste any different. The oysters were probably already contaminated when they arrived at the stand, St. Louis County Public Health said in a news release. The man had eaten them sometime in the past week.
The release said the business is cooperating with the investigation and that there is no evidence that the business did anything to contaminate them. Health officials are trying to determine their source.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 80,000 people get vibriosis in the U.S. each year, and about 100 people die from it.