In recent months, Kerala in India has been touched by Naegleria Fowleri, better known as the brain eater amoeba, where 70 people have been diagnosed with the disease and 19 are dead. In the United States, there have been 31 cases of infection since 2018, and in all cases except three, the individual died.
Mortal amibe infects people who swim in contaminated freshwater lakes where water rises, heading for the brain and spreading. Rare but often deadly, amibe is a monocellul organism that feeds on bacteria and lives in lakes, ponds, under-chlorinated swimming pools and pads.
Where are the eaten brain amoeba?
In the lakes and ponds of fresh water during the summer months, the amibe can be found floating in lukewarm water. At the trophozoist stage of the life cycle, the amibe is actively nourished and reproduces. When you jump into the water, microscopic amoebas go up the nose and attach to the olfactory fabric, where they replica using the binary fission. As cells develop and divide into girls cells.
The eldest amibas, those of the cyst, live at the bottom of the lake. At this stage, they hardened to endure the severe environment at the bottom of the lake, explains David P. Siderovski, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and neuroscience at the health sciences of the Northern University in Fort Worth, Texas.
If you dive down and launch silt, they can be released. They are deadly when ingested because the trophozoists are housed inside them. “Wear a nose clip if you jump and do not dig up dirt at the bottom of the lake,” says Siderovski.
Learn more: It is possible to get a tenias in your brain – here is what can happen
Why are brain eating amoebas so deadly?
While the eaten brain amibe is extremely deadly, a few people in the United States and a number of people in India have survived infection. Siderovski says that it is almost always fatal because we do not attract it fast enough and because our treatments for the condition are not great. However, it is possible to quickly diagnose the infection by extracting vertebral fluid and examining it under a microscope to identify the Amibe. But this is only possible if you live near a laboratory that can test it.
In this case, a patient is possible to dose with enough medication to stop the amibe before taking over. A case study shows a 12-year-old child in the United States who was quickly diagnosed and received recommended drugs from amphotericin, rifampin, azithromycin, fluconazole, aggression and dexamethasone, and the child survived.
In India, patients are better equipped to survive the infection, probably because they have the laboratories necessary to quickly test the amoeba in Kerala and because they have antimicrobials in hand to treat the disease.
In addition, due to public health messaging, individuals are quick to test when they have headache, fever, nausea or vomiting, and they could have been exposed to the amoeba.
How to avoid brain -eating amibe
If you venture into hot and soft water for the hottest months of summer, as mentioned above, wear a nose clip. Avoid swimming in swimming pools that are not correctly chlorinated. Do not put your head under hot springs. Do not dig at the bottom of the lakes, especially when it is shallow. If you rinse your nasal passages with a Neti pot, make sure that the water is distilled or boiled.
“Part of the reason why we have no more effective treatments is that it is so rare,” says Siderovski.
But its rarity does not change the impact it has on those who lose their loved ones to infection.
This article does not offer medical advice and should be used for information purposes only.
Learn more: Naegleria Fowleri: the brain eating amibe
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