FOXSYLVANIA

        Yes…brain-eating amoebas are real, and live in lakes!  It sounds like B-grade science fiction, but they enter the body through the nose and attack the brain, where they feed until you die!

The amoeba, called Naegleria fowleri, killed 23 people in the United States from 1995 to 2004.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention know of only several hundred cases worldwide since the discovery of the amoeba in Australia in the 1960’s.  Infections tend to be found in southern states, and people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom.  If someone allows water to shoot up the nose the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve, destroying tissue as it makes its way up into the brain where it continues the damage, basically feeding on the brain cells.–Isn’t that a happy thought?

The infection is usually fatal within two weeks.  Early syptoms are a stiff neck, headache, and fever; later symptoms are hallucinations and behavioral changes.  The amoebas can live in lakes, hot springs, and even dirty swimming pools, living off algae and bacteria in the sediment. 

And to think, I had been worried about zombies eating my brain (although it would be a starvation diet)!