Photo by Kevin H.

A man who went for a swim in the Potomac River over the Fourth of July weekend contracted a dangerous strain of bacteria that almost cost him his leg.

WTOP has the story:

For the Fourth of July holiday, Joe Wood and his wife Jeana visited family near Callao, Virginia and swam in a Potomac River inlet.

“We were jumping off the dock, throwing sticks for the dogs to catch, just normal horseplay,” Wood says from his hospital room in Fredericksburg.

“At one point, I scratched my knee climbing on a wooden pylon and I kinda bumped my knee on it.”

It left a scrape, but nothing he gave anymore though to, Wood says.

A day later, the cut was swollen and he felt sick. Wood went to the hospital and was quickly transferred to an infectious disease specialist at Mary Washington Hospital who diagnosed him with a specific type of vibrio bacteria, eating away at his flesh.

Wood isn’t alone! There was a second reported case of a man contracting the bacterial infection in the D.C. area in July. From Reuters:

Rodney Donald, 66, was crabbing, swimming and kayaking in the Chesapeake Bay this month when a scrape became infected with vibrio vulnificus, an aggressive bacteria that feeds on flesh, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Donald was taken to a hospital on July 11 when his right leg swelled up. He was transferred to MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, where doctors performed six surgeries, including a skin graft.

He spent two weeks in the hospital before being released on Thursday, the spokeswoman said.

That’s the fifth vibrio infection contracted by people who swam in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries this summer, according to BayNet. More from Reuters:

In Maryland, the number of all vibrio cases, including the strain that afflicted the two men, reached 57 last year, a 10-year high, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Virginia had eight total vibrio cases last year, according to the Virginia Department of Health. There have been 27 cases so far this year.

A spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Health said there haven’t been any cases reported in the city this year.

While this information may be slightly terrifying, it should not discourage people from using local waterways. The Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin warns potential swimmers to avoid the Potomac for “several days after a significant rainstorm. Storm flows spike bacteria levels, which decrease with time.” People with open cuts and wounds should not enter the water unless that area of their body is protected.

But as MedStar Washington epidemiologist Ligia Pic-Aluas told the Washington Post, “99.9 percent ‘of people who go into the water will be fine.'”