Brain-eating amoeba kills six in U.S.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003911024_webamoeba28.html?syndication=rss
Friday, September 28, 2007
Brain-eating amoeba kills six in U.S.
By CHRIS KAHN
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — It seemed like a headache, nothing more. But when painkillers and a
trip to the emergency room didn't fix Aaron Evans, the 14-year-old asked his
dad if he was going to die.
"No, no," David Evans remembers saying.
"We didn't know. And here I am: I come home and I'm burying him," the grieving
father said.
What was bothering Aaron was a killer amoeba that enters the body through the
nose and travels to the brain where it feeds, destroying brain tissue.
Doctors said the teen probably picked up the microscopic amoeba, Naegleria
fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye), a week earlier while swimming in the
balmy shallows of Lake Havasu near his home on the state's western border.
Such attacks are extremely rare, but they are usually fatal and six boys and
young men have died this year in three states. Aaron Evans' death Sept. 17 was
the most recent. Some health officials have put their communities on high
alert, telling people to stay away from warm, standing water.
"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, Naegleria killed 23 people in the United States from
1995 to 2004. This year health officials say they've noticed a spike in cases,
with three in Florida, two in Texas and young Evans' death in Arizona. The CDC
knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia
in the 1960s.
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 cannonball off a cliff — the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory
nerve.
People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and
fevers, Beach said. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage
such as hallucinations and behavioral changes.
#1 donkey
"-" <jazze...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46ffe042....@news.isomedia.com...
>
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003911024_webamoeba28.html?syndication=rss
>
> Friday, September 28, 2007
> Brain-eating amoeba kills six in U.S.
>
> By CHRIS KAHN
>
> The Associated Press
>
>
> pools, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment.
>
> Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and
> doing a cannonball off a cliff - the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory
> nerve.
>
> People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and
> fevers, Beach said. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain
> damage
> such as hallucinations and behavioral changes.
>
>
I think one of these got into Bush's brain.
BDK
_don...@hotmail.com says...
Just one?
I think someone put a couple dozen in his Maypo.
BDK
Jak.De...@aol.com
"BDK" <B...@magicsteel.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.2169d2a18...@news.buckeye-express.com...
Nah, it only takes one, and it would still be hungry afterwards.
Hertz_Donut
news:46ffe042....@news.isomedia.com...
Not that it would be a threat to you....
Honu
BDK
Jak.De...@aol.com says...
Maybe Bush could sneeze it out and it can go to work on Cheney.
BDK
Bob Loblaw
"Hertz_Donut" <some...@outhere.net> wrote in message
news:0oidnZHTz-u90Z3a...@hawaiiantel.net...
Too late for you. You used to be "Hertz-muffin" before the amoeba.
PhilO
> stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose — say, by
> doing a cannonball off a cliff — the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory
> nerve.
Someone posted this earlier , in the earlier post it mentioned pinching
the nostrils when doing cannonball type stunts as a way preventing it .