Health officials are urging Gulf Coast beach-goers to take precautions when entering the water during a summer surge of infections from a flesh-eating bacteria that has been attributed to seven deaths.

The warnings were issued in Florida and Louisiana, where state officials have confirmed nine cases this year of Vibrio vulnificus infections, including five deaths, according to PBS.com.

Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death, over the same period over the previous decade. 

Florida has reported at least 14 cases and two deaths. 

Health experts say Vibrio bacteria thrive in seawater and in the brackish mix of fresh and saltwater found in estuaries and lagoons and that the Gulf is an ideal environment because it has the ideal mix of salt and heat to let this organism proliferate, PBS also reports.