Date:         Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:25:42 -0400
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      warning to those considering Buses by the Bridge!  brain-eating
              amoeba...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I got this on a kayak list - didn't think it had a vanagon connection until
I realized where this amoeba was killing people!







Joy



-----Original Message-----
From: nyckayaker-bounces@rockandwater.net
[mailto:nyckayaker-bounces@rockandwater.net] On Behalf Of David Gottlieb
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 8:27 AM
To: nyckayaker
Subject: NYCkayaker As if there aren't enough dangers to kayakers
outthere...



This seems like an Enquirer headline... But it is for real.... Better wear

those nose clips....



Here is the link to the story below:



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KILLER_AMOEBA?SITE=KTVK&SECTION=HOME&

TEMPLATE=DEFAULT



Sep 29, 1:03 AM EDT



6 Die From Brain-Eating Amoeba in Lakes



By CHRIS KAHN

Associated Press Writer



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PHOENIX (AP) -- It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer

amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the

brain where it feeds until you die.



Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare,

it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health

officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.



"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a

specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.



"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better,"

Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see

more cases."



According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh

FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004.

This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases - three in

Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several

hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.



In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected with

the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At first, the teen

seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache.



"We didn't know," Evans said. "And here I am: I come home and I'm burying

him."



After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably picked up the amoeba a

week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu(!!!), a
popular

man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and California.



Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives

almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing

off algae and bacteria in the sediment.



Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and

stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose - say, by

doing a somersault in chest-deep water - the amoeba can latch onto the

olfactory nerve.



The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it

continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain cells," Beach said.



People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and

fevers. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage such as

hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.



Once infected, most people have little chance of survival. Some drugs have

stopped the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been attacked

rarely survive, Beach said.



"Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two weeks," he said.



Researchers still have much to learn about Naegleria. They don't know why,

for example, children are more likely to be infected, and boys are more

often victims than girls.



"Boys tend to have more boisterous activities (in water), but we're not

clear," Beach said.



In central Florida, authorities started an amoeba phone hot line advising

people to avoid warm, standing water and areas with algae blooms. Texas

health officials also have issued warnings.



People "seem to think that everything can be made safe, including any river,

any creek, but that's just not the case," said Doug McBride, a spokesman for

the Texas Department of State Health Services.



Officials in the town of Lake Havasu City are discussing whether to take

action. "Some folks think we should be putting up signs. Some people think

we should close the lake," city spokesman Charlie Cassens said.



Beach cautioned that people shouldn't panic about the dangers of the

brain-eating bug. Cases are still extremely rare considering the number of

people swimming in lakes. The easiest way to prevent infection, Beach said,

is to use nose clips when swimming or diving in fresh water.



"You'd have to have water going way up in your nose to begin with" to be

infected, he said.



David Evans has tried to learn as much as possible about the amoeba over the

past month. But it still doesn't make much sense to him. His family had gone

to Lake Havasu countless times. Have people always been in danger? Did city

officials know about the amoeba? Can they do anything to kill them off?



Evans lives within eyesight of the lake. Temperatures hover in the triple

digits all summer, and like almost everyone else in this desert region, the

Evanses look to the lake to cool off.



It was on David Evans' birthday Sept. 8 that he brought Aaron, his other two

children, and his parents to Lake Havasu. They ate sandwiches and spent a

few hours splashing around.



"For a week, everything was fine," Evans said.



Then Aaron got the headache that wouldn't go away. At the hospital, doctors

first suspected meningitis. Aaron was rushed to another hospital in Las

Vegas.



"He asked me at one time, 'Can I die from this?'" David Evans said. "We

said, 'No, no.'"



On Sept. 17, Aaron stopped breathing as his father held him in his arms.



"He was brain dead," Evans said. Only later did doctors and the CDC

determine that the boy had been infected with Naegleria.



"My kids won't ever swim on Lake Havasu again," he said.



---



On the Net:



More on the N. fowleri amoeba:



http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/naegleria/factsht-naegleria.htm#what