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09-29-2007, 02:41 AM
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#1
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: K.C.
Posts: 11,731
M.O.C. #5980
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So, you thought you would just...................
Cool off in the lake...
Brain-Eating Amoeba Kills Six People
Last Edited: Friday, 28 Sep 2007, 7:30 PM CDT
Created: Saturday, 29 Sep 2007, 5:00 AM CDT
09/29/2007 --
An amoeba which lives in lakes, enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds has killed six people in the United States.
Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, the spike in cases so far this year has worried health officials, who predict there will be more to come.
"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centres For Disease Control & Prevention.
"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," said Mr Beach.
"In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."
According to the CDC, the amoeba, called Naegleria fowleri, killed 23 people in the US 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.
Arizona man David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, had been infected with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died earlier this month.
At first, Aaron seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache.
"We didn't know," explained Mr Evans. "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 Lake Havasu, a man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and California.
Though infections tend to be found in southern states in the US, Naegleria lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment.
People become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom.
If someone allows water to shoot up their nose - for example by doing a somersault in chest-deep water - the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve.
From there it destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it continues to do more damage.
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09-29-2007, 03:08 AM
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#2
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Troy
Posts: 1,980
M.O.C. #808
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Ozz, oh Ozz, did you really have to tell us that!!!!!!! I thought you was going to say something about some BEAUTIES swimming around the lake, not some brain suckers! But if I don't have a brain, I guess it won't hurt me, huh!
Wasn't there some kind of worm that entered your ear and ate your brain too. Or was that just a movie?
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09-29-2007, 05:16 AM
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#3
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location:
Posts: 992
M.O.C. #7128
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They have had that problem occur in a couple of lakes here in central Texas, resulting in peoples death
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09-29-2007, 05:45 AM
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#4
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Apple Valley
Posts: 1,574
M.O.C. #1358
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Not such a good thing here in the land of 10,000 lakes.
It's getting so you can't even go in the water anymore.
I feel sorry for our kids and their kids.
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09-29-2007, 06:13 AM
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#5
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Pagosa Springs
Posts: 3,711
M.O.C. #3120
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Ozz,
We also heard that the same amoeba was at Lake Pleasant which is just North of Phoenix. We swam in the lake...was 60 degrees..brrrr. Thanks for the heads-up.
Ozzie,...YOU owe me a new computer screen! swat..swat..swat..!!...darn missed.
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09-29-2007, 06:46 AM
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#6
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Apple Valley
Posts: 1,574
M.O.C. #1358
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LOL...it's been quite the hit...
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09-29-2007, 05:20 PM
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#7
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Montana Fan
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Maurice
Posts: 224
M.O.C. #7633
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yeah, about that bug. i keep swatting at that darn little bug also on my screen .... ozzie, you will owe a few more of us a new computer screen! oh well, we get a giggle out of it too.
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10-11-2007, 12:28 PM
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#8
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Driftwood
Posts: 1,376
M.O.C. #5446
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Ozz,
One of the people killed from this swam in the lake where we go camping all of the time. The water there this year is really horrible due to all of the rain that Central Texas received all at one time. The campground received 13 inches in one night. I am not sure when that lake will be back to normal, but we won't be swimming in it any time soon. Now fishing.....is a different story.
Colleen
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10-11-2007, 01:48 PM
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#9
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Montana Fan
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: No Telling
Posts: 207
M.O.C. #7430
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Ozz
"In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."
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The alleged rising of temperatures has not been scientifically proven to be factual.
You can avoid the amoeba by wearing a nose clip while swimming...the only way it enters the body is through the nose.
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10-12-2007, 02:18 AM
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#10
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: K.C.
Posts: 11,731
M.O.C. #5980
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Driftwoodgal
Ozz,
One of the people killed from this swam in the lake where we go camping all of the time. The water there this year is really horrible due to all of the rain that Central Texas received all at one time. The campground received 13 inches in one night. I am not sure when that lake will be back to normal, but we won't be swimming in it any time soon. Now fishing.....is a different story.
Colleen
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Let's bypass that lake...Hey I am interested in the Segway tour in Austin, have you heard anything about that?
We should be there the 21st or 22nd.
I will answer your e-mail today.
Ozz
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10-12-2007, 02:19 AM
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#11
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: K.C.
Posts: 11,731
M.O.C. #5980
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Eagle Man
Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Ozz
"In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."
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The alleged rising of temperatures has not been scientifically proven to be factual.
You can avoid the amoeba by wearing a nose clip while swimming...the only way it enters the body is through the nose.
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I'm on the same page about the temperatures.....
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10-13-2007, 07:46 AM
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#12
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Driftwood
Posts: 1,376
M.O.C. #5446
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Ozz,
No, I haven't heard about the Segway tour. You are missing the Ride for the Roses that is winding through the hill country on Sunday. Lance will be leading the race, and will ride right through Dripping Springs.
Colleen
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