Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Brain-Eating Amoebas

Recently in July, a 12 year-old girl from Arkansas was infected with a fatal parasite known as the Amoeba Naegleria. From the investigation of the Arkansas department of health, the deadly parasite is most likely found from a sandy bottom lake at Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock. This rare form of parasitic meningitis normally feeds on bacteria and tends to live in the sedimentary layer of warm lakes and ponds. Three years ago, there was a similar case linked to the park. In some condition, Naegleria Fowleri will form flagella and move to a more favorable area. When people swim in a warm freshwater during the summer, the contaminated water pushes through the nose then to the brain. In most case, his parasite will live in fresh untreated water with minimal chlorination. Fresh and warm water are mostly found in the warm weather states. By swimming in a well-treated, filtration, and chlorination swimming pool can reduce or eliminate the risk. However, about ten years ago there was a case when a kid became ill and died after swimming in a pool filled with water from a geothermal hot water source before it was treated. The parasite wasn’t being taken too serious since there were only about four to five cases per year. But recent investigation found that the parasite seems to move to areas they weren’t seen before like Minnesota, Indiana, and Kansas. It’s obviously shown that this contaminated parasite is continues to spread, not only in the warmer states but now go further north.  However, not everyone will be infected swimming. Nearly millions of people swim in these bodies of water each year that doesn’t become ill. Scientist haven’t figure out the reason why one would become ill but other who swam in the same place does not. There have been 129 cases since 1952 of Naegleria Fowleri and there was only one who survived. The patient was being treated with antibiotic and succeeds, the same procedure was used on the others but none become success.
Even though this is a rare event, it’s good if people would try to avoid certain activities to reduce the risk of being infected. Swimmer could hold their nose shut or wearing nose clips when swimming. Keeping head above water is also an effective way when doing water sport activities. When in the water, try to avoid stirring up the sediment where Amoeba may live.
There is no official update of how to certainly avoid this parasite, so to all freshwater swimmers this summer…swim at your own risk.


8 comments:

  1. This is really scary. How many of us have swam in Lake Wylie this summer? Just thinking that a harmless swim can kill us is quite frightening. There really isn't anything we can do about this, and protecting ourselves from the amoeba won't be easy. I know I have a pond in my back yard that we go swimming in a lot, and making sure the water isn't to hot and the water level isn't too low is always something we have to do to be cautious. The only way to truly prevent this is to stay out of the water. If we can educate people to know under what conditions we should and should not swim in the bodies of fresh water then we could lower the amount of people affected by these amoeba. Seeing as there is not really a way to rid ourselves of them once they have infested our bodies, we really do just have to swim at our own risk.

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  2. I have, that is the scarier part for me. However there is nothing we can do to stop people from enjoy their summer. There haven't been any case of the Amoebas around us, which is the good news. I guess the only thing we can do right now is to be cautious, stay away from swap and dirt.

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  3. This is just as frightening, if not more frightening, than Brittany's article on mind-controlling fungi. What is truly frightening about this amoeba is that we are all at risk, and we have no known way of stopping it. Until we do, swimming in places like lakes and ponds will become risky business. Not only that, but the amoeba itself looks like a face. That's frightening. Right now, there is only one way to deal with it beside to stop swimming, and that is to find a way to kill off the organism. However, this may hold unforeseen consequences involving the fragility of the environment. By taking out an organism, or even introducing a different one, can wreak havoc on an ecosystem and cause it to lose all balance. The only real solutions would either be to stop swimming in waters suspected to hold the amoeba, or to find a way to stop it after it enters our head. Until then, it may be safer to just swim in pools.

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  4. I thought that when my grandmother told me about the amoeba that she was just trying to scare me. Let's just say that I will never question my grandmother again. This is terrifying. I have been swimming in lakes all summer. Next time I go swimming (if I go anymore) all I will be thinking about are these scary little things.

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  5. Finding a way to kill the organism it is like putting stuff into the water to prevent them or kill them? if so I agree with River about fragility of the environment and worst enough introducing a new one. If too much chemical shall put into the nature, it is even safe anymore for us to swim? when the fishes eat them, and then we consume those fishes, isn't that like poisoning ourselves? and yet, how much will be enough?
    on the good side, the NBC News pronounced the improvement of the 12 years old girl yesterday. Her doctors are cocktailing antibiotics and even antifungal drugs.
    if doctors are lucky enough to find a cure, maybe less would die in the future.

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  6. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/brain-eating-amoeba-remains-rare-deadly-6C10916521

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  7. Nice. I thought the lake was so pleasant... The comforting part about this is that the odds of getting a fatal disease are extremely slim to none, when looking at the millions who haven't gotten the organisms by swimming in Lake Wylie. I agree that using chemicals in the lakes is an extremely bad idea and that instead we should stick to man-made water parks and keeping our heads above the water! An interesting point brought up also is that fish may be at risk. All that these organisms need is to adapt enough to get into fish, and then into the people and animals that eat them. That might even cause a national panic, if the odds are right. The fact that they are popping up in random northern places such as Minnesota is another scary development, although it should be looked into more. For instance, how many of those in northern states had traveled to the south for vacation and obtained the disease there? How many had swum in public areas as opposed to natural swimming holes and ponds? Finally, what is the overall treatment for this disease? I'm sure that new ways to cure it through antibiotics are right around the corner.

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  8. I agree with River! Even though this is not as…drastic as a fungi able to infiltrate and actually control an animal. That has only been found in ants. This is just as terrifying to think about, especially as it literally feeds on our brains. One thing that I have not seen addressed is how do they move from lake to lake? Does it kill every person it “infects” or are some just a kind of host? If we can figure this out, then maybe we can test people who have it as a “host” or even be able to detect the virus sooner and be able to isolate it. This goes back to what Cammie first said about how only a few of the millions to visit those bodies of water contracted the virus. Also, as David brought up, have there been any documented episodes of it affecting other animals?

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