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An amoeba that killed a man from New Jersey is common in hot and fresh water, but the chances of people getting sick, let alone dying, are very low.
From Fabrice Stabile main symptom before his death Last month, after contracting Naegleria floweri, she had a headache. The state epidemiologist Tina Tan is a common symptom in a person who has contracted the amoeba. Tan said that in any given year, the authorities could receive eight reports of amoebic infections or have none.
She stated that it was important to remember that "hundreds of millions of people" were swimming in the waters where the amoeba could be present.
"It is important to recognize the path of transmission," she said. "The way people are infected, is when the water containing Naegleria floweri rises in the nose."
What it means, said Tan, is that people are not sick of it by swallowing water containing amoeba, and it is not transmitted from person to person. People who contract the amoeba will usually have symptoms within nine days, Tan said.
the CDC reports that Naegleria floweri grows in warm environments, developing best at temperatures of up to 115 degrees.
"It is less likely to be in the water when temperatures drop," says the CDC on its website. "The amoeba is found in the sediments of lakes or rivers at temperatures well below those where we would find an amoeba in the water."
According to the CDC, from 2008 to 2017, 34 infections were reported in the United States. Three of these infections were from recreational waters, three nasal irrigations using contaminated tap water and one person using a slippery slide using tap water. contaminated.
symptoms:
The most common symptoms are headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. From there, the symptoms can evolve into confusion, loss of balance, convulsions, even hallucinations. Tan said that the progression of the disease depends on the health of the person and other factors.
Diagnostic:
To test the amoeba, one needs to get cerebrospinal fluid and test it, Tan said. One of the problems that doctors face with the diagnosis is that the disease progresses so quickly and can be fatal if it is not detected and treated on time.
Treatment:
Treatment can be difficult because of the limited window to make the diagnosis and the absence of safe drugs to treat the infection. The CDC reports that, although several drugs have proven effective in the laboratory, "their effectiveness is uncertain because almost all infections have been fatal, even when people have been treated with similar drug combinations".
The CDC announced that two people had survived recent infections after being treated with a new drug called miltefosine, along with other medications and a treatment for brain swelling.
Prevention:
Because the amoeba is contracted through the nose, people can take a few simple steps to protect themselves. Just wearing nose clips or simply keeping your nose closed when you dive in the water can be an effective method of prevention, Tan said. People who swim in warm, fresh water can simply choose not to dip their heads under water.
Tan said that these expanses of water are generally not regulated for amoeba, but since it is so rare and the causes can be variable, there is really no way to regulate it effectively.
"The tests are not routinely performed on these recreational waters," she said. "The fact is that these amoebae are quite common and that infections are rare.The relationship between the discovery of an amoeba in water and the occurrence of an infection is not clear. because of the problem of its rarity. "
Tan said that Stabile's death was the first documented case of amoeba in a New Jersey resident. His family has created a foundation to educate the public about the dangers of the amoeba. A GoFundMe established to help start the foundation raised more than $ 23,000 last week, with a goal of $ 50,000.
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