Naegleria fowleri - sounds a little like some kind of scam where someone emails you telling you they want to wire you lots of money if you will send them your bank account number. It’s actually a brain-eating amoeba, and when you see a big graphic proclaiming “Brain! Eating! Amoeba!” on a new service web page, it tends to catch your attention.

While not strictly apocalyptic (except to the person whose brain is being eaten), it qualifies as “Plague” and is therefore blog-worthy. As an added benefit, it even has a global warming tie-in!

The news article describes amoeba infections as attacks, as if the amoeba are sitting around dark corners of lakes waiting to mug you. In reality they live on the bottoms of lakes and go up your noise when water is stirred up such that it goes… up your nose. So don’t get water up your nose and you’ll probably be okay.

If you do get Naegleria fowleri-bearing water up your nose, your proboscis prognosis is not good. All six cases this year have been fatal. The amoeba will start munching on your olfactory nerve and follow it up to your brain. You’ll start out with a stiff neck, progressing to headaches and fevers and possibly hallucinations, and then you’ll die.

The global warming tie-in is that the Naegleria fowleri likes heat, so as temperatures rise we can expect to see more of it.

Via: Arizona Boy Dies Of Rare Infection - Local News Story - KPHO Phoenix
[tags]Naegleria fowleri, brain, amoeba, brain eating amoeba, plague[/tags]

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