United States: When summer comes up and temperatures really get high, one usually goes swimming in the sea and like that is if you’re close to the coast, otherwise you may swim in a river, stream, lake or in a pool. These freshwater spots are refreshing, but they come with a hidden danger: the type of a brain infection which is really a rarity but is fatal in nature and is caused by a particular microbe named as the ‘brain-eating amoeba’. 

What is this boring thing called a brain-eating amoeba? 

This pathogen however has the scientific name Naegleria fowleri. The part that says ‘brain-eating’ you start thinking it’s a fiction film monster but no, it is real and deadly. 

According to Medicalxpress, the medical scientists identified the amoeba in the sixties, after several people died from a strange kind of meningitis in the fifties in South Australia. 

It results in an often-untreatable disease known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. This disease has led to hundreds of deaths through infected individuals in a number of countries. Boys are most often affected, and the mean age of infections is twelve years. 

N. fowleri has amoeboid shape and is a microscopic single cell organism. It can be located in freshwaters and soil environments and experiences optimal growth at water temperatures of 25- 40°C. 

But how does the amoeba get into the brain? 

This disease is special in terms of the transmission process of the disease to the patient. You will not get infected by taking water which has been contaminated. That is why it can only penetrate a person’s brain through water getting into the nasal cavity. This lets the amoeba pass through the nasal tissues in order to get to the brain and the central nervous system. 

You can die from accidentally flushing your nasal passages with water in which the amoeba was found present. Any nasal rinses should only include water that has been through the suitable sterilization process. 

Some of the first signs include headache, vomiting, nausea, fever and stiffness in the neck. Usually, it can be up to five days before the development of the infection after coming across the amoeba. 

When a person experiences such effects after coming into contact with probably infected water, the need to see a doctor is very important. Surprisingly, there are cases where the individual infected with the virus was treated early enough to allow her or him to survive the virus.