A microscopic organism called Naegleria fowleri has killed six people this year in the US, a huge spike since the CDC reported only 23 cases from 1995 to 2004.
All had been struck with flu-like symptoms after being infected by the Naegleria amoeba. The deaths came after swimming in the warm waters of Lake Havusa in Arizona and at several lakes outside Orlando, Florida.
Naegleria attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the victim’s brain by following the opthalmic nerve. Here is a link to the National Center for Disease Control’s Naegleria fowleri fact sheet:
Here is the CNN story from September 18th about the mysterious Naegleria ameba deaths of three youngsters in the Orlando area.
11-year old Will Sellers was infected in August while learning to wakeboard on Orlando’s Lake Jessamine. A 10-year old boy and a 14-year old boy from the Orlando area also died this summer.The Lake Havasu Naegleria amoeba death was similar. 14-year old Aaron Evans spent an afternoon playing in the warm waters off a park beach at a family gathering. Two weeks later, he was dead.
Bottom line, wear a nose plug whenever you swim in a warm lake because this amoeba is deadly and it’s becoming much more widespread.
Alternate spellings include nageleria, nagleria, nageleria, and naegeleria.
And that’s the bad news on the recent Naegleria fowleri deaths.
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September 30th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Hi,
Just fyi,
Two young men died on Lake LBJ in Austin in August. One was 12, the other 22. Very sad and scary. Both confirmed positive for naegleria.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:32 am
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