Would you like a side of brain with that?

[negativeneve]

I don't know about you, but I've always thought of amoebas as being rather harmless.

Well, apparently not.

The brain eating amoeba, aka Naegleria fowleri (we're going to keep calling it the brain eating amoeba because it's much cooler sounding), is found all over the world but is most common in warm, freshwater bodies like lakes and rivers.  Although

Comments

[draike]

If by "nice" water you mean gross bath-temperature water. The last case I read about this past summer involved a lake that was just... wow, I don't know why you'd swim in it anyway. The water wasn't even cool enough to be refreshing, like.. 80 degrees? Not to mention most of the water was filmy and had tons of algae to boot. My first thought was no wonder this poor kid got brain-eaters up his nose! Global warming is certainly worthy of blame, but after seeing photos of this lake.. I don't care how hot it was, it just wasn't worth swimming in.

Such an odd lifecycle though... it gets in the human host, noms its brain to death, and then? How does it go on? I'm assuming we're not the natural host for this thing.

[dr_beowulf]

I studied these guys years ago, for my undergraduate honors thesis. . . Basically, they're normally free-living. They don't need humans at all to reproduce; they'd be perfectly happy creeping around in the muck and eating bacteria and leaving us humans alone. It's just that, if they get accidentally snorted up a person's nose, they start nomming on the brain.

I worked with a related species, Naegleria gruberi -- the difference being that N. gruberi prefers cooler temperatures. It's hugely abundant in soils, for example, but would be killed at human body temperature. N. fowleri is adapted to higher temperatures, which has the unfortunate side effect that it can survive and multiply in a human brain, at least for long enough to give you a slight case of death. But it's not technically a parasite.

[sgkoneko]

My pool is always at least 83 before I swim in it...

*shifty eyes*

Believe me that's not bathwater.

Bathwater is around 89 degrees.
Boy is that NOT refreshing.

[negativeneve]

link?

[negativeneve]

I think my pic is more scientifically correct. ;)

[amnotcute]

That's kind of horribly fascinating.

[meig]

This is why I don't swim in non-chlorinated water.

Well, this and sewage. And leeches. And algae. And fish shit.

[saciel]

and human shit, and tampons, and plastic bags with leftovers, portuguise warships, dead babies...

yeah, I blame you, mediterran sea in front of Barcelona.

[duowolf]

Now I don't ever want to go near water ever again.*shiver*