6 die from brain-eating amoeba in lakes - Yahoo! News
2007/10/02/1048RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070928/ap_on_he_me/ki…
According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL’-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.
In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At first, the teen seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache.
“We didn’t know,” Evans said. “And here I am: I come home and I’m burying him.”
After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably picked up the amoeba a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu, a popular man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and California.
Be afraid. This kills an average of nearly 2 people per year!
It’s interesting that it’s so difficult to kill amoebas. I expect this has something to do with our evolutionary similarity.
You heard me. BTW: don’t get infected by a fungus, either.