So it turns out its not just zombies that eat your brains - amoebas' do too. Except they actually exist.
Christian Strickland, a 9 year-old from Virginia, contracted the infection after visiting a fishing camp. He died of meningitus on August 5. This week, the health department confirmed that the deadly amoeba - "Naegleria fowleri" - was to blame.
"Usually found in warm, stagnant water in freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers, the parasite "enters the nasal passages ... and migrates to the olfactory nerves, eventually invading the brain," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It almost always causes meningitis. Symptoms include fever, nausea, stiff neck and a frontal headache.
Thirty-two infections of the parasite were reported in the U.S. between 2001 and 2010, CDC spokeswoman Christine Pearson told The Lookout, adding that infections are almost always deadly."
The only consolation is that there hasn't been any incidents in Australia yet - although, there's enough out here to kill us already, that it'd probably be overkill.
via Yahoo News
No comments:
Post a Comment