Brain eating amoeba
posted in - Medical Oddities, - Palmdoc |
No it did not come from outer space but it’s not science fiction either. There’s been a spate of “brain eating amoeba” news now that 6 more unfortunate people in the US have been reported to die after contracting this infection by swimming in lakes.
A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.
Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it’s killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future
I have not heard or read about Naegleria fowleri infection in Malaysian waters but apparently this amoeba is found wordwide in warm bodies of freshwater, such as lakes, rivers.
A bit of interesting trivia from Wikipedia:
Naegleria fowleri was featured on the TV show House, on season 2, episodes 20 and 21. The writers got the most dramatic symptom wrong. Both characters developed cortical blindness, a condition affecting the occipital lobes where the patient thinks he can see but really cannot. This is not consistent with Naegleria fowleri, whose initial symptoms are “alteration in taste (ageusia) or smell (parosmia)”
As an aside, I also wonder if the typical Malaysian hospital will be able to diagnose this infection accurately, given the propensity to blame “JE” on any meningo-encephalitic illness.
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October 4th, 2007 at 10:22 am
I think Malaysians are probably quite safe from this brain eating bug, since our lakes and rivers are so polluted, only a moron will jump in for a swim.