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Neti Pot and Brain-Eating Amoeba in Tap Water Thought to Have Caused Seattle Woman's Death

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the ewwwwwh dept.

takyon writes:

Fatal brain-eating amoeba may have come from woman's neti pot

A Seattle woman rinsed her sinuses with tap water. A year later, she died of a brain-eating amoeba. Her case is reported this week in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2018.09.013] [DX].

The 69-year-old, whose name was not given, had a lingering sinus infection. For a month, she tried to get rid of it using a neti pot with tap water instead of using sterile water, as is recommended. Neti pots are used to pour saline into one nostril and out of the other to irrigate the sinuses, usually to fight allergies or infections.

According to the doctors who treated the woman, the non-sterile water that she used it thought to have contained Balamuthia mandrillaris, an amoeba that over the course of weeks to months can cause a very rare and almost always fatal infection in the brain.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:54PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:54PM (#771680)

    Who's to say she didn't catch the bug by an illegal alien sneezing on her?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @10:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @10:01PM (#771683)

    Who's to say she didn't catch the bug from a war veteran smooching her to get over his PTSD?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:50AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:50AM (#771721)

    Who's to say she wasn't murdered by her own government... making it look like an infection. Most governments do murder their own citizens and also citizens of other countries, so keep an open mind.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday December 09 2018, @03:47AM

      by Gaaark (41) on Sunday December 09 2018, @03:47AM (#771784) Journal

      Who's to say she didn't kill herself with the bacteria in order to get back at her South Italian lesbian lover with green eyes and that gimpy leg she found so attractive who works at the neti pot plant, who just dumped her.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:23PM (#771897)

      > so keep an open mind.

      I wouldn't worry about that. Most Soyentils minds are so open the brain popped out ages ago, and in most cases is already rolling half way down the hill :-)