Before reading this story out-loud, just keep in mind that it’s 2020 on the calendar and you can expect such things from it.
The news is that a brain-eating amoeba has been discovered in the USA and it has killed a six-year-old boy already. The scientific name of the amoeba is naegleria fowleri.
As per the reports, the same is a microscopic organism that breeds in the warm, fresh water of lakes and rivers and of poorly maintained swimming pools. The child died on September 8 after the organism took the route via his nasal membrane to reach the brain.
The same then affected the functioning of his brain. As per experts, the amoeba can take on the brain to cause powerful migraine, hyperthermia, stiff neck and vomiting, dizziness, extreme fatigue, confusion and hallucinations.
Grandparents of Josiah McIntyre, the deceased child, told the Houston Chronicle that he might have been exposed to contaminated water while he was playing in a splash park downtown, shortly before he fell ill.
What is the brain-eating amoeba?
Naegleria, as per the facts, is a single-celled living organism commonly found in warm freshwater and soil. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) only one kind of such amoeba, the Naegleria fowleri, affects human health.
The occurrence of such amoeba is not unprecedented. In fact, between 1983 and 2010, Texan health authorities have attributed 28 deaths to the amoeba Naegleria fowleri.
The same can be found all around the world but not in saltwater like the ocean. Also, the relief quotient is that the infection caused by the same doesn’t transfer from one person to another.
The bad, however, is also the fact that the infection entertains a whopping fertility rate of over 97%. Only 4 out of 145 people infected in the USA between 1962 to 2018 have survived the infection.
Symptoms
Initial symptoms include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, and stiff neck. Later symptoms include confusion, loss of balance, seizures, and hallucinations. Death typically occurs within 12 days, reports CBS.
