After the case from North Carolina, where a man tragically lost his life due to a visit and a swim in the lake, at the Fantasy Lake Water Park, researchers come with the best definition of what is meant by an amoeba and its structure.
Of what appears to be a simple cell, is actually more than that. The amoeba, with a harmless appearance, could be lethal in just a very short time. But how something like this is possible?
Everything changes when amoebas meet a bacteria, is practically a battlefield out there, especially because these cells succeed to morph into strange structures, submerging the bacteria and slowly tearing them apart with a multitude of gastric enzymes. Imagine now all that stuff when an amoeba meets a brain. Maximum power of destroying everything.
Even these infections with the killing amoeba are very rare, the studies show only 164 cases in US since 1962, the most recent one is recorded on 22nd of July, this year. The virus, also called N. fowleri, travels in the warmer parts of freshwater, exactly where it consumes on bacteria on the residue. The most recalled area of happenings is in the southern states, like Florida or Texas, always in the hot season.
All the action begins in the exact moment when the residue of a lake is disturbed because that’s when the amoeba gets moved into the lake. People who choose to swim in those places can easily inhale the amoeba through their nose, and from there it will attack the olfactory nerves and goes next to the last stop, the brain. There it will cause serious damages, scientifically known as main amoebic meningoencephalitis.
The fact that the brain has an almost structure as a how water, meaning it’s moist and warm, will always be the best choice for an amoeba.
The symptoms, however, can surface after a day or two, or even two weeks, and it includes severe headache, heavy fever and vomiting. These symptoms easily move next to the nervous system, producing in the worst case, seizures.
The medication, unfortunately, it’s nowhere to be found, meaning its efficacy it’s not guaranteed completely. A high chance was accorded to the Miltefosine.
