Deadly Brain-Eating Ameba.

Naegleria fowleri infection can occur after swimming in rivers and freshwater lakes. More rarely, people may also become infected when swimming in poorly treated swimming pools, submerge their heads into contaminated tap water, or irrigate their sinuses with contaminated tap water (that was not boiled).

Naegleria fowleri infection does not occur from drinking the water - the parasite has to enter through the nose.

Naegleria fowleri infection can lead to PAM amebic meningoencephalitis, an infection of the brain in which tissue dies. Initially, PAM signs and symptoms are very similar to those of bacterial meningitis.

PAM symptoms may appear between one and seven days after the human is infected, and may include fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck and headache. The patient may eventually experience confusion, loss of balance, seizures, hallucinations and unawareness of what is going on around him/her. Most patients with PAM eventually die.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), there were 32 reported Naegleria fowleri infections from 2001 through 2010 in the USA. Thirty of the patients had become infected after contact with recreational water, while the other two became infected from a geothermal drinking water supply.

Naegleria fowleri is also known as "brain-eating ameba". It exists in nature in three forms: a cyst, a trophozoite (ameboid) and a flagellate.


Three stages of Naegleria fowleri