This coastal delicacy can carry a nasty bacteria

Some people should pay more attention to that little warning on the seafood menu about the dangers of consuming raw fish.

Of course, millions of people every year enjoy a plate of oysters on the half-shell washed down with a crisp chardonnay or beer, and it’s an actual way of life in coastal areas. So, one should not overstate the danger, except when it comes to people with compromised immune systems.

If you have diabetes, liver disease, blood disorders, stomach or digestion issues, or if you take immune-suppressing drugs for cancer or steroids for breathing problems, then never eat oysters on the half-shell.

In fact, if you have any of these problems, don’t even touch brackish water (partly salt, partly fresh) or seawater habitats of oysters. Even a small cut (or in one case, a new tattoo) can expose you to nasty bacteria called Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 80,000 people each year get vibriosis, the disease caused by bacteria. Most have relatively mild, but very unpleasant symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting. But about 100 people each year die from it, mostly those with the underlying health problems mentioned earlier. In the worst cases, it can cause blood infections, blistering skin lesions, and even necessitate limb amputations.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a naturally occurring and has nothing to do with water pollution, so even water that seems to be clear can contain it. It tends to proliferate in warmer waters between May and October.

If you don’t have any of those underlying problems, get your oysters at a restaurant that closely follows oyster guidelines, such as freshly shucked oysters and keeping the oysters continuously on ice.

Anyone can eat oysters when they are completely cooked. The bacteria dies in oysters when fried for three minutes at 375 degrees, baked at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, or boiled for three minutes.

Neither hot sauce (no matter how spicy) nor lemon kills the bacteria.