According to officials, a Florida citizen died after becoming infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba.
According to health officials in Charlotte County, southwest Florida, the person became sick after cleaning their nasal passages with tap water.
CDC Warns Florida Residents
Naegleria fowleri enters the brain via the nostril. According to officials, consuming it is not harmful. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infections are virtually invariably lethal (CDC).
Infection with Naegleria fowleri “may only occur when water infected with amoebae enters the body through the nose,” according to the department’s press statement.
The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County advised residents to make sinus rinse solutions exclusively with distilled or sterile water. Before utilizing tap water for sinus rinsing, which commonly involves a neti pot, it should be heated for at least a minute then cooled.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration’s website, tap water that has not been sterilized is not safe to use as a nasal rinse since it has not been thoroughly filtered or treated and may contain low amounts of germs such as bacteria and protozoa, including amoebas. Yet, people cannot be infected by drinking tap water since stomach acid kills such organisms.
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What Is Brain-Eating Amoeba?
Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled living creature found in soil and warm freshwater bodies such as lakes, rivers, and hot springs in the United States. It is well known as the “brain-eating amoeba,” because it can cause brain infections when amoeba-containing water enters the nose, as when swimming.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately three people become infected in the United States each year, and these infections are usually fatal.
Infected people develop an illness known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis. Headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, stiff neck, loss of balance, seizures, and/or hallucinations are some of the symptoms.
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