Re: 6 die from brain-eating amoeba after swimming

On Sep 28, 5:36 pm, Lee Olsen <paleoc...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21034344/
6 die from brain-eating amoeba after swimming
Rare organism that lives in lakes entered victims' bodies through the
nose

Updated: 11:36 a.m. PT Sept 28, 2007
PHOENIX - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer
amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks
the brain where it feeds until you die.
Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily
rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases
has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in
the future.
"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a
specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does
better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd
expect to see more cases."
According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-
ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995
to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases -
three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of
only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia
in the 1960s.
In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected
with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At
first, the teen seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a
headache.
"We didn't know," Evans said. "And here I am: I come home and I'm
burying him."
After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably picked up the
amoeba a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake
Havasu, a popular man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona
and California.
Deadly infection
Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives
almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools,
grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment.
Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water
and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose -
say, by doing a somersault in chest-deep water - the amoeba can latch
onto the olfactory nerve.
The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain,
where it continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain cells,"
Beach said.
People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches
and fevers. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage
such as hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.
Once infected, most people have little chance of survival. Some drugs
have stopped the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been
attacked rarely survive, Beach said.

Thanks Lee.

Extremely rare, affects boys (splashing, dunking), deadly.
1) Possible cure: immediate sustained humming (Nitric oxide from
sinuses is anti-biotic, directed at olfactory area AFAIK.).
2) Freshwater is pathogen friendly, unless acidic (bog) AFAIK.
Seawater that is not near sewage is far better.
3) AFAIK, freshwater should never be in the nose for any reason.

.

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