This rare brain-eating amoeba has infected over 37 people between 2006 and 2015 in the United States.
This rare brain-eating amoeba has infected over 37 people between 2006 and 2015 in the United States. The last person seems to have caught the amoeba while swimming on the Edisto River in Charleston County.
The amoeba is proved to live in rivers and lakes in warm water locations. When it enters the human, it uses the human brain as a food source, but this creature usually feeds on bacteria.
The infection is named naegleriasis and symptoms appear after about a week after one has caught the disease. Vomiting, extreme headaches, fever, and nausea seem to be among the symptoms. After the infection is well spread in the human brain, symptoms include lack of attention, loss of balance, hallucinations, confusion and a stiff neck that are usually followed by death.
It is known that the mortality rate when contracting this amoeba is 99 percent, the victim practically suffers from both a brain infection and meningitis.
According to media reports, three people died a few days earlier from this infection after swimming in the Trinity River in Texas.
The diseases are very rare, so specialists assure us that we do not have to worry every time we go swimming in warm waters.
A pharmaceutical company has sent the hospital treating the infected patient a drug called miltefosine. It was initially invented in the 1980s to fight cancer, and it is well known to fight diseases caused by parasites transmitted through flea bites, tropical climates or sand. The treatment with this drug costs around $48,000
It’s difficult to contract the amoeba because you must first swim in the waters the amoeba can be found in, and secondly, you must jump feet-first in the water in a way that the amoeba –containing water would go up your nose with a force that will propel it close to your brain. Most often, the amoeba dies before causing the infection.
Doctors recommend holding your nose or using nose plugs when jumping in the water because just drinking the water containing the amoeba doesn’t contaminate you. Specialists also assured that salty waters are not an enabling environment for the amoeba and the infection cannot be spread through contact with another person.
Image source: Wikipedia
