Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday December 09 2018, @11:46AM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday December 09 2018, @11:46AM (#771881) Journal

    Is that you, Mr. Pence?

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:52PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @12:52PM (#771901)

    I think the whole staff could benefit from such christmas gifts. Maybe also a Chia Obama bust for the kids.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @04:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @04:02PM (#771962)

      Wouldn't work. They have a natural immunity.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @04:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @04:09PM (#771966)

    If it is, he's been talking to Mueller again.