The Brain-eating Amoeba
This week I'd like to talk about Naegleria Fowleri,
the brain-eating amoeba. Nagleria Fowleri is a free-living organism that will
acts as a parasite if given the opportunity. It inhabits soil and warm water
environments such as hot springs, lakes, and warm water baths. Naegleria
Fowleri can only survive in freshwater environments. The Individuals who become
infected with this organism are usually acquire it by diving in lakes.
Naegleria Fowleri is only infective if it enters the
body through the nasal cavity and up the olfactory nerve. Infection will not
take place if the organism enters the body through a different orifice. Once
this organism gets into the olfactory nerve it enters the Central nervous
system and causes a disease called primary amoeba meningoencephalitis (PAM).
PAM is a brain infection that leads to the destruction of brain tissue. Once
the necrosis of the brain tissue has occurred swelling of the meninges begins.
Symptoms include headache, fever, vomiting, nausea,
and neck stiffness. This disease progresses rapidly. From the time of infection
to the time of visible symptoms is usually 5 days. Death occurs 48 hours after
the symptoms become evident. Due to the rapid occurrence, it is quite hard to
diagnose while the infected individual is alive. Most cases are diagnosed after
death by the findings of trophozoites in spinal tissue. Treatment for PAM is
unclear. Amphotericin B is often administered to patients who have PAM but
effectiveness is unknown because the infected individual usually dies.
Links: https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/index.html
http://www.medicalbag.com/profile-in-rare-diseases/primary-amoebic-meningoencephalitis-pam/article/472280/
Links: https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/index.html
http://www.medicalbag.com/profile-in-rare-diseases/primary-amoebic-meningoencephalitis-pam/article/472280/
This is insane! I was not aware of the severity of this amoeba. I find it very interesting that it is only a danger when it enters through the nasal cavity. Hopefully, some sort of vaccine or preventative measures will come into place to lower the number of casualties. Great job on this post.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I literally just shared your blog to my class because it was so interesting. It is so crazy to me that just a day at the lake diving can turn into a front row seat to your own funeral. What blows my mind are the symptoms are just a headache or a fever, which usually is common after being out in the sun and water all day.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! Thanks for sharing this information, I did not know that such a thing existed. I really hope researchers do more studies over this, so people should not have to die. I also think that spreading awareness, especially in areas where people acquired this disease is very important. It's sad to me how the symptoms are so common that it could be mistreated for a bad cold, and still have no idea they are literally dying.
ReplyDeleteI have a foggy idea of this, since I think this was told to me almost in the form of a wives tale. Although I know there are alot of bacteria and other reasons to not swim in a lake I feel as though I have heard about this one before. I wonder where the highest concentration of these bacteria are or if this is something that can just be in any lake. Would be interesting to see if there was a study on that.
ReplyDeleteWOW. This is super interesting. I find it so strange that it is only problematic if it enters through the nasal cavity. If you really think about it it makes sense because that is the quickest way to the brain. It is scary to think that such common symptoms could be because of something so serious.
ReplyDeleteFlashbacks to Galveston. I wonder how well it is able to spread, (i forget the vocabulary term for how easily transmittable an infection is.) If this is in lakes would every body get it or is it like 1 out of 5. These kind of things seem terrifying but it is usually a low amount of people who contract it. I wonder since this is a parasite what conditions would it need to grow or where could it not survive. Since our body is a mix of compounds and salts with water I could see why maybe it would not spread in other areas, but why would a nose exposed to air allow it to get through, and what about the neuron. is this similar to what it uses in lakes to survive and spread? The brain must suffering from a compound the parasite produces maybe.
ReplyDeleteAll in all though it adds to the already terrifying world of weird things the world has like fungus brain control ants.
Wow! This is crazy and very informative. I'll have to watch out for this next time I go floating. I never knew that these parasites actually existed and their origin of infection is very interesting. Hopefully there can be more vaccine and treatments that can be made to prevent infection by these amoebas.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic, that I would have liked to see some of your sources?
ReplyDelete