CDC Warns SciFi-Like Amoeba Cases Likely to Increase

It sounds unfathomably gross and straight out of a sci-fi movie, but the latest incidences of a brain-eating Amoeba attacking humans is unfortunately anything but fiction. Six more victims were claimed recently-five of them children. The killer amoeba dwells in lakes. They silently enter the body of their unknowing victims through the nose and immediately unleash a lethal feeding frenzy on the victim’s brain.

For now these bizarre encounters are still quite rare. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) has only killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. But experts are worried that they seem to thrive in warm weather, and as ecosystems warm up, they say we can expect the cases to rise. Once infected, most people have little chance of survival.

This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases - three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC only knows of several hundred documented cases worldwide since the brain-eating amoeba was first discovery in Australia back in the 1960s.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach continued. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was being eaten alive by the amoeba until after the 14-year-old was already dead on Sept. 17. At first, the teen just complained of a headache.
"We didn't know," Evans said. "And here I am: I come home and I'm burying him."

After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably picked up the amoeba a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu, a popular man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and California.

Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment.

Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the mud at the bottom. If someone gets water in their nose, the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve where it begins destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain "basically feeding on the brain cells," Beach said.

People who are infected usually complain of a sore, stiff neck, headaches and fevers. Later on, they'll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.

Once infected, most will die. Some drugs have been able to stop the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been attacked almost never survive, Beach notes. "Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two weeks," he said.

Researchers still have much to learn about Naegleria. They don't know why, for example, children are more likely to be infected, and boys are more often victims than girls. "Boys tend to have more boisterous activities (in water), but we're not clear," Beach said.

In Florida, authorities started an amoeba phone hot line advising people to avoid warm, standing water and areas with algae blooms. Texas health officials also have issued warnings.

People "seem to think that everything can be made safe, including any river, any creek, but that's just not the case," said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Officials in the town of Lake Havasu City are discussing whether to take action. "Some folks think we should be putting up signs. Some people think we should close the lake," city spokesman Charlie Cassens said.

Beach cautioned that people shouldn't panic about the dangers of the brain-eating bug. Cases are still extremely rare considering the number of people swimming in lakes. The easiest way to prevent infection, Beach said, is to use nose clips when swimming or diving in fresh water to keep the amoeba out of your nose.

"You'd have to have water going way up in your nose to begin with" to be infected, he said.

But most swimmers can tell you it’s not that uncommon to accidentally snort a little water up your nose. David Evans is upset and confused over what happened to his son. He had no idea there was any risk, or he would have kept his kids out of the Lake. He wonders if city officials knew about the risk, and why there were no warnings.

Evans lives within view of the lake. Temperatures hover in the triple digits all summer, and like nearly everyone else in the area, the Evanses once saw the lake as a great place to cool off, while having fun. It was on David Evans' birthday Sept. 8 that he brought Aaron, his other two children, and his parents to celebrate on Lake Havasu. They ate lunch and played in the lake as they had many times before. "For a week, everything was fine," Evans said.

Then Aaron got the headache that wouldn't go away. At the hospital, doctors first suspected meningitis. Aaron was rushed to another hospital in Las Vegas. "He asked me at one time, 'Can I die from this?'" David Evans said. "We said, 'No, no.'" But on Sept. 17, Aaron stopped breathing as his father held him in his arms.

"He was brain dead," Evans said. Only later did the Center for Disease Control determine that the boy had been eaten alive by Naegleria. It was too late for Aaron, but Evans says his other children “won't ever swim on Lake Havasu again."

Posted by Rebecca Sato

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Links:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/naegleria/factsht-naegleria.htm#what
http://www.nbc11.com/health/14231993/detail.html
http://www.physorg.com/news110255496.html