Fla. scientist probes flesh-eating bacteria for clues to next pandemic

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A bout with flesh-eating bacteria can start out with a day at the beach, a hardly worrisome cut and then, in less than 24 hours, a raging infection fought with heavy antibiotics and gruesome scalpel work. It would be reassuring to know where and when Florida’s coastal waters are ripe with “one of the fastest growing organisms on earth,” said a University of Central Florida scientist. Salvador Almagro-Moreno, a native of southern Spain, graduate student in Ireland and researcher at Dartmouth College, arrived at UCF in 2017, where he is now an assistant professor of medicine. He...