Texas Woman Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba After Using Tainted RV Water

The practice of a woman’s nasal irrigation resulted in her death via the eaten brain amibe. In a recent case report, health officials have described how she contracted a fatal infection of Naegleria Fowleri Thanks to contaminated tap water from a recreational vehicle.

Federal and local health officials in Texas detailed Unusual death last week in the weekly report in CDC’s morbidity and mortality. The 71 -year -old woman has developed neurological symptoms a few days after using a nasal irrigation device and only died until a week later. These infections, although rare, can be prevented by practical safety measures, such as the use of sterilized water for nasal irrigation, according to officials.

N. Fowleri is a Amoeba Spemashiffing Who lives in the soil and hot freshwater. It generally feeds on bacteria and is not dangerous for humans when it is simply ingested. But when the amoeba enters our body through the nose, it can find itself in the brain. Once there, the amibe literally feasted brain cells and will trigger massive inflammation, causing a severe brain infection known as Primary amibic meningoencephaliteor Pam.

According to the MMWR report, the previously healthy woman looked for medical care with fever, headache and altered mental state. Four days earlier, she had irrigated her nose to tap water from a VR water system in a campsite in Texas. Doctors quickly suspected PAM, but even with treatment, she developed crises and died eight days after the start of her symptoms. The bizarre nature of his death then caused a Texas Department of State Health Services and CDC investigation.

The managers tested both the water from the VR portable water tank and the nearby municipal water system to which the VR may have been connected during the trip. No source has been tested positive for the amoeba, and the civil servants could not taste the water until 23 days after the exposure of the woman, so that environmental conditions may have simply changed by then. But they found evidence that the VR water system was not properly disinfected to avoid contamination, probably explaining how the amoeba found its way in women’s tap water.

“This case strengthens the potential for serious health risks associated with poor use of nasal irrigation devices, as well as the importance of maintaining the water quality of the VR and ensuring that municipal water systems comply with regulatory standards,” the managers wrote.

PAM is very rare, with only 150 cases Reported since the Amibe was discovered in the 1960s, but it is almost always fatal once the symptoms have started. Most infections are generally captured when people get the nose while swimming in hot lakes. But the amibe can also survive in consumer or recreation water systems, especially if they are not correctly sterilized. And there have been several cases of people infected with the use of contaminated tap water for nasal irrigation (irrigation is generally carried out to clean the sinuses in allergic people or respiratory infections).

The authors of the report say that WFP can be easily prevented by recommended nasal irrigation practices, which include only distilled, sterilized or boiled water and cooled for irrigation. This last case also highlights the unique danger posed by poorly cleaned RV water systems. Texas and federal health officials have therefore created a infographic So that VR users to follow so that they can reduce their risk of WFP and other water diseases.