Disease of the Week: Brain-eating Amoeba. Naegleria fowleri, more commonly known as the Brain-eating Amoeba, is a protist that lives in warm bodies of fresh water. The fowleri has a very similar life cycle to other amoeba, with 3 stages: Trophozoite, in which it reproduces and moves around through pseudopodia; Flagellate, which occurs when exposed to ionic conditions; and Cyst stage, where it waits out unfavorable conditions (low temperature, starvation, etc.) However, when fowleri enters the central nervous system through the nose, all Hell breaks lose. The olfactory bulb is basically destroyed by the amoeba, it continues to move up nerves into the brain. Following this, it begins a severe case of meningitis, eventually almost always resulting in the death of the patient (98% mortality rate). Fortunately, cases of Brain-eating amoeba are very rare, with only about 120 cases occurring in the past 70 years in America. The CDC recommends wearing nose plugs while swimming in fresh water in order to avoid infection, but even if you go without them, the odds are extremely low that you will catch fowleri.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 03:46:53 +0000
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