CNN
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A person infected with Naegleria fowleri, a rare brain-eating amoeba, has died in Charlotte County, Florida.
The infection may have been attributed to the “practice of sinus irrigation with tap water,” it said. news release From the Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County. This release was issued in February to warn the public about the infection.
On Thursday, the department confirmed that an infected person had died, and authorities continue to investigate the incident.
“An epidemiological investigation is underway to understand the unique circumstances of this infection. Unfortunately, we can confirm that there have been deaths due to the infection. It is confidential.
According to the agency’s news release, infection with Naegleria fowleri “occurs only when amoeba-contaminated water enters the body through the nose.”
The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County warned residents to use only distilled or sterile water when making sinus washes. should be boiled for at least 1 minute and cooled.
Unsterilized tap water is not properly filtered or treated and cannot be safely used as a nasal rinse. U.S. Food and Drug Administration websiteHowever, you cannot get infected by drinking tap water. This is because stomach acid normally kills these microbes.
Naegleria fowleri is an amoeba, a single-celled organism that lives in soil and warm freshwater in lakes, rivers, and hot springs throughout the United States. Commonly known as “brain-eating amebas,” amebas can cause brain infections when water containing amebas moves up the nose, such as during swimming.
About three people are infected in the United States each year, and these infections are usually fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the CDC, from 1962 to 2021, only 4 out of 154 people in the United States survived a brain-eating amoeba infection. Just last year, a boy died after becoming infected after swimming in Lake Mead, another child in Nebraska became infected after swimming, and a Missouri resident died after visiting a beach in Iowa.
Signs and symptoms of infection are initially severe headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting, which can progress to stiff neck, seizures, hallucinations, and coma. Infections are treated with a combination of drugs, such as the antibiotic azithromycin, the antifungal drug fluconazole, the antibiotic miltefosine, and the corticosteroid dexamethasone.
