Ew Ew brain-eating parasite

[Platapus]

This poor family.

A 12-year-old girl in Arkansas is in critical condition after being infected by a rare but deadly brain-eating parasite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kali Hardig was admitted to Arkansas Children's Hospital about eight days ago, according to a hospital spokesperson.


Her infection was caused by a microscopic amoeba called Naegleria fowleri, which enters the body through the nose and travels to the brain. It's usually found in people who have been swimming in warm freshwater. You cannot be infected with the organism by drinking contaminated water, the CDC says.


"This infection is one of the most severe infections that we know of. Ninety-nine percent of people who get it die," Dr. Dirk Haselow with the Arkansas Department of Health told CNN affiliate WMCTV.


...

"After the start of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within one to 12 days."


Getting this amoeba is extremely rare. Between 2001 and 2010, there were 32 reported cases, the CDC says. Most of the cases occurred in the Southeast.


Here are some tips from the CDC to help lower your risk of infection:
-- Avoid swimming in freshwater when the water temperature is high and the water level is low.
-- Hold your nose shut or use nose clips.
-- Avoid stirring up the sediment while wading in shallow, warm freshwater areas.
-- If you are irrigating, flushing or rinsing your sinuses (for example, by using a neti pot), use water that has been distilled or sterilized.

Crikey! This poor girl. Ew Ew Brain-eating parasite.


I wonder if there is any truth to the rumor that this parasite migrated down West after almost starving to death in Washington DC?

[WernherVonTrapp]

I had a friend who died of this very thing back in the mid 90s. It seems he contracted it sometime during a vacation cruise to Mexico. He lived in NE, NJ.

Sad indeed.

[Platapus]

I hope your friend did not suffer too much.

[WernherVonTrapp]

It's been a while. I went to the wake, funeral & repast. From what I was told, he spent most of his last days in a coma.

[Skybird]

There was an episode in "House" dealing with a brain-eating amoeba, it was a double-episode entitled "Euphoria". There they said it also was an extremely painful infection, because the drugs fighting pain can no longer become active in the brain. It was an absolutely frightening story they told, a real horror tale. Foreman got infested from a patient who died by these amoeba, in terrible pain that made him literally mad.

The amoebas then got killed by exposing Foreman to either Legionell or a drug against Legionellas or both.

Back then I thought: nightmare scenario: maximum pain - and the brain structures allowing drugs to switch pain off - destroyed.

German press reported about a dramatic increase of such amoebas in American lakes in 2011, and since then. Ir seems they are spreading, probably due to warming up of potential water reservoires where such amoebas can live.

There are things out there you do not wish even your worst enemy or the most disgusting scum on Earth.

[Stealhead]

They close down some lakes for swimming here in Florida from time to time because of those amoebas.

I think they tend to prefer warm water that is stagnant the most and most of the time around here it seems to be the man made lakes that have them seeing as they usually do not have a natural flow of course body of water can occur naturally and still be fairly stagnant.

I would avoid swimming in any stagnant body of water not just because of the possible amoeba presence but also the other micro organisms that can kill you in other ways that are sure to be present in such water.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Oh, don't tell me this stuff. My daughters swim in a local man-made lake here in PA.