I thought that little catfish that swam up your urethra was creepy.
Now I learn that there’s a species of amoeba that lives in warm water, can swim up your nose, and eat your brain?
Suffering Christ on a surfboard! Is this thing native to the U.S.? If I had known about this years ago, I’d never have jumped in a freshwater lake! Apparently they can even be found in dirty swimming pools, too! Gah!
::shudder::
Cool.
Couldn’t he just crawl up my urethra and eat my fish?
Flander GF - “Not tonight honey, I have a headache.”
Flander - “Goddamn cock-blocking amoeba! Why does amoeba get head and not me?!?”
Seriously though, between that and flesh-eating bacteria, it’s not wonder some people are germaphobes!
Actually, no. It’s killed three young children in Orlando(ish). We went to a freshwater lake for Mother’s Day…it’s scary to think playing in the water can kill you.
This is very serious.
My understanding is that it primarily attacks children. Apparently, children’s noses haven’t developed all the way, and that allows the amoeba to reach the brain.
Personally, I can’t think of a worse way to go.
I knew there was something that this story reminded me of.
This is nothing new-the amoeba that does this si present in all fresh watr. It multiplies fas under conditions of high mineral content and warm ( 70 F) water. A woman in England died the same way, a few years ago-she had been swimming in the Roman Baths in Bath, England.
The Army warns against it. http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/PAM.htm
It’s present in the hot springs in Bath, England. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=167479
[monotone]I got you an official SDMB hat. [/monotone]
At least I’m safe! Unless I have an underdeveloped nose.
Even with the penis-fish suggested in-thread?
There are all kinds of random, freaky ways you can die. There’s no point in worrying about them all, there’s nothing you can do anyway.
:dubious:
I heard that merely inhaling water can be fatal to young and old alike!
Hhhm. The link says that there’s been 23 dead in the US in 10 years. That’s two dead a year. Fewer people have died in ten years from this amoeba than died in 1995/96 from dog bites, and it’s about 25 times less likely you’ll die from these amoeba than from lightning strikes. I’m not sure I’d call that very serious. Scary, sure. Serious…no.
Keep an eye on it, though.
I’m pretty sure rabies actually kills more people than this thing. Do you go around worrying about rabies or lightning strikes? No? Well, then there’s really no cause for alarm.
No cause for alarm. OTOH, I’m glad to be living where the lakes are always cold.
My neighbor ended up with one of these entangled around her brain after she ate a pork taco in Mexico. The thing nearly killed her. The surgeons were never able to remove it all because it’s so intertwined inside her even though it’s dead now.
Yah, there are plenty of scary, but rare, things out there that occasionally pop up in the news. I did my senior year pathology final paper on Baylisascaris procyonis, not an amoeba, but a worm ingested fecal-orally that can bore a hole into your brain. Stay out of the sandbox if there are raccoons native to your area!
Oh wait, raccoons are everywhere.
Happily, it appears that this is curable, which is why it made such a good episode of House , and the vicious unstoppable brain amoebas won’t. Lest they become curable. In which case, I assure you they’ll pop up on House.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of times more likely to die in a car crash. Should I stay home and insist on telecommuting so I can avoid the San Mateo Bridge idiots?
