Woman dies after contracting rare brain infection through tap water. How to avoid Naegleria fowleri?
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Brain-eating amoeba entered a woman's body and killed her.
A woman in Texas used tap water to clean her sinuses, after which she got sick and soon died. Doctors discovered that a brain-eating amoeba had caused an infection.
A 71-year-old woman in Texas died after a brain-eating amoeba entered her brain through a nasal irrigation device. The rare infection is known as Naegleria fowleri, and the woman is said to have contracted it through tainted tap water that came from a recreational vehicle.
The details of her condition and death were carried in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) last week. The woman developed neurological symptoms after using tap water from an RV’s water system at a campground in Texas to clear her sinuses. Four days later, she had fever, headache, and confusion.
The MMWR report stated that doctors immediately suspected that it was a case of severe brain infection, or primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The sickness is caused by N. fowleri, a shapeshifting amoeba, that can enter the brain through the nose. It starts feeding on brain cells and triggers massive inflammation.
Brain infection killed woman within 8 days
Doctors started the treatment, but she passed away within eight days of the symptoms showing up. Following her death, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the CDC opened an investigation.
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The water used by the woman to irrigate her nose was suspected of carrying the amoeba that is typically found in soil and warm freshwater. Officials tested the water from the RV’s portable water tank and the municipal water system the RV may have been connected to during the trip.
However, they did not find any trace of the amoeba. Since the test happened 23 days after the woman used it, officials think that the environmental conditions might have changed by then. But they did find that the RV’s water system wasn’t properly disinfected, which could have enabled the amoeba to enter the water.
Tap water should not be used to clean sinuses
Officials highlighted the problems associated with using tap water for nasal irrigation. “This case reinforces the potential for serious health risks associated with improper use of nasal irrigation devices, as well as the importance of maintaining RV water quality and ensuring that municipal water systems adhere to regulatory standards,” they wrote in the report.
The amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, was discovered in the 1960s, and since then, only about 150 cases of the brain infection have been discovered. But, it has proved fatal almost every time. The amoeba typically enters the body while swimming in warm lakes. However, any type of non-sterilised water can also play host to it.
Experts suggest using only distilled or sterilised water for nasal irrigation to avoid contracting the rare infection.
