A 2-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba infection this week, according to the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health and a Facebook post from the child’s mother.
I've read about them and it's fascinating how it happens. Brain eating amoeba are super common, but it's actually rare that they kill you because they don't actually want to be in your brain, they just get lost and confused. There's a thread that connects your nose to your brain looks like food to them so they follow it up there. And your body just has a hard time killing it for some reason. Then it reaches the brain where defenses are weak and just goes wild eating, at which point you are done for.
I think of them like little lost sharks. They don't know what's going on or where they are, but they will mess everything up just because that's what they do.
It’s pretty rare and only a potential problem if you put your head under the water. Here in New Zealand we have lots of hot springs and that’s the reason there’s signs saying don’t put your head under the water.
For Naegleria fowleri in particular, there have been enough infections from tap water, but as it prefers warm water, it's more common in swimming pools and bathing lakes.
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