Brain eating organism...
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
October 2, 2007 10:49pm CST
I read here on myLot the other night about this awful organism that has caused the deaths of at least six boys and young men. Apparently it enters the body through the nostrils and continues to the brain and slowly eats away at it causing death. It is believed to always be fatal. All the known victims were swimming in lakes or, I think, rivers, not swimming pools although it did say that wouldn't be impossible as it's believed to come from dirty standing water where there's algae. OK, I'm in Pennsylvania and it didn't happen anywhere near here, but I neither heard nor saw nothing about it anywhere except here on myLot! That in itself is frightening because to me that's big news. There have been these six cases this year and there were only a very few cases ever recorded before in history, and it's expected to happen with more frequency as temperatures increase. Who else has or hasn't heard about this and what are your thoughts on it?
Annie
1 person likes this
7 responses
@poohgal (6845)
• Singapore
3 Oct 07
Oh dear. This is my first time hearing about such things. It sounds terrible. There are no open lakes in my country for us to swim in. We usually swim in the swimming pool. Hopefully the scientists can think of a way to protect us against such organisms. Meanwhile, all we can do is to be alert and vigilant. God Bless.
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@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
3 Oct 07
This story has been all over the national news (fox news, cnn, msnbc) and in the local paper here (even thought it happened states away).
This is not a new amoeba. I believe it was "discovered" in the 1960's outside of the US. If you read most articles, there have been cases of this amoeba attacking and killing humans for years. It just happens that this year the number of cases is really high because of all the hot weather we are having.
From what I understand the water is safe to swim in, but you can't get it up your nose. So when jumping or diving into water, you need to hold your nose and close your mouth to ensure that you don't pick up anything weird.
Here is an article about the 6th vicitim (not sure what has been posted on MyLot about this):
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298338,00.html
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@plumwish07 (4057)
• Indonesia
4 Oct 07
i just knew it when i saw your discussion, annie. whooaaa, its sound frightened enough. is it real? where it is founded? any further data or news regarding this matter? i just cant imagine if this organism really alive and curious what is their food anyway if there is no human swimming on that lake? brain of fish?
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@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
4 Oct 07
I too read about it and you are right...at this point it has a a 100% fatality rate.
I would assume that researchers are now looking for a way to beat this thing since it does appear that this is the beginning of this phase.
Or at least the first time we are realizing its existence. It may have been around but not detected before.
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@anniepa (27955)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Apparently it was first discovered several decades ago but there were never many cases, but this year there have been six known cases which is what is so frightening. I hope researchers are working on it but often when something is this rare there isn't enough money to spend studying it, so unfortunately until this reaches higher numbers it may continue to be ignored. From what I read the water has to go way up into the nose to cause harm, but I sure wouldn't take any chances. I know I won't be getting into a lake or river anytime soon!
Annie
@dpurchas (91)
• United States
4 Oct 07
They were talking about this on the radio yesterday. I think this happened in Florida or somewhere down in that area. It is some sort of amoeba. I heard about it a week or so ago on the news. You should be able to search just about any news site for amoeba and see something on it. It is supposed to inhabit fresh water places and they did mention pools with standing water, but they said we would have been exposed to it before potentially. I can't remember specifics though, so go search the site if you want to see the official story with the scientific quotes. It is pretty scary stuff though. Makes me not want to swim anymore.
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@worldwise1 (14885)
• United States
3 Oct 07
Well, anniepa, that's very frightening news to me. I missed it on myLot, and have not heard anything in the media about it either. I do have a source that I will go to and check it out. Things keep getting more and more scary each day. I cannot see what the temperature would have to do with it since some places always have temperate weather.
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