Naegleria Fowleri
(a special article for those of you with nothing to worry about)
The Case For Nose Plugs
Down South
23 people have died with this infestation, all in Florida, Texas or Arizona. The bug likes warm places and is stirredup from the sediment and into the water by waders. It can also live in swimming pools. Now, here's where it gets really ghoulish.
It enters via a swimmers nose, migrates up the olfactory nerve (the one that tells you that your neoprene needs a bath...but I digress) and up into the brain where it feeds. Folks unfortunate enough to serve as a dormitory for these little guys complain of headache (well, dah), fever and other nonspecific symptoms. Neurological symptoms occur next, and death follows within days. There is no cure.
Prevention: plug up your nose. Incidences are rare, but the fatality is 100% for those who have gotten it.
Paddle safe...
DS
5 comments:
Yet another reason to paddle in Paradise: Newfoundland, Labrador and Baffinland! Repack your bags...
As kids we were never allowed to put our heads under water when swimming in NZ's geyser-fed pools. These pools were primarily local holes in the ground or parts of streams and invariably muddy. Good memories, but sad cases of the same killer amoeba in NZ as well.
Michael's on the right track, Kiwi is slacking in NC, Silbs with the good news and I have run aground in Wisconsin :-/
What's next... lead paint in children's toys!
Perhaps we need to get the amoeba to eat lead paint :)
Kristen, how did you folks from down under manage to sneak this little bugger into the US?
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