Amoebic

Naegleria fowleri

What are Amoebas

• Amoebas are composed of just one cell.
• They are protozoans with no fixed shape.
• Most have no hard parts and look like blobs of jelly. However, some amoebas do build shells.

Symptoms

How Do People Get Infected With Brain-Eating Amoeba?

• headache
• fever
• stiff neck
• loss of appetite
• vomiting
• seizures
• coma

• The nose is the pathway of the amoeba, so infection occurs most often from diving, water skiing, or performing water sports in which water is forced into the nose.
• Infections have occurred in people who dunked their heads in hot springs or who cleaned their nostrils with neti pots filled with untreated tap water.
• A person infected with N. fowleri cannot spread the infection to another person.
• Brains are accidental food for amoeba. N. fowleri normally eats bacteria. But when the amoeba gets into humans, it uses the brain as a food source.

Naegleria Fowleri

Brain-Eating Amoebia

Where Are Brain-Eating Amoebas Found?

• Amoebas are single-celled organisms. The so-called brain-eating amoeba is a species discovered in 1965. It's formal name is Naegleria fowler.

• There are several species of Naegleria but only the fowleri species causes human disease. There are several fowleri subtypes. All are believed equally dangerous.

• Like other amoebas, Naegleria reproduces by cell division. When conditions aren't right, the amoebas become inactive cysts. When conditions are favorable, the cysts turn into trophozoites -- the feeding form of the amoeba.

These amoebas can be found in warm places around the globe. N. fowleri is found in:

•Warm lakes, ponds, and rock pits

•Mud puddles

•Warm, slow-flowing rivers, especially those with low water levels

•Untreated swimming pools and spas

•Untreated well water or untreated municipal water

•Hot springs and other geothermal water sources

•Thermally polluted water, such as runoff from power plants

•Aquariums

•Soil, including indoor dust

Naegleria cant live in salt water. It cant survive in properly treated swimming pools or in properly treated municiple water

Bibliography

http://www.webmd.com/brain/brain-eating-amoeba?page=3

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/general.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-when-an-amoeba-eats-your-brain/

How Do Amoebas Get in the Brain?

• Studies suggest that N. fowleri amoebas are attracted to the chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate with one another.
• Once in the nose, the amoebas travel through the olfactory nerve (the nerve connected with sense of smell) into the frontal lobe of the brain.

Treatments

• Miltefosine has shown ameba-killing activity against free-living amebae, including Naegleria Fowleri.
• The right treatment isn't clear. A number of drugs kill N. fowleri amoebas in the test tube. But even when treated with these drugs, very few patients survive.