Are you using your tap water?

This is the hottest news making rounds ever since the Louisiana health officials discovered that the cause of death of a 4-year-old child in early August was due to a rare brain infection (amoebic encephalitis) that was due to a deadly amoeba that found its way into the water pipes of a suburban New Orleans community, St. Bernard Parish, southeast of New Orleans.

Actually, how deadly is Naegleria fowleri? This single-cell microorganism is just one-tenth the width of human hair. This does not eat through the brain tissue as the name suggests, but only causes devastating immune reaction. It is very interesting to note that this cannot thrive in our gastric acid and so nothing happens when swallowed. Then, how does it enter the brain? Louisiana state epidemiologist Raoult Ratard says, to get infected, the amoeba has to crawl way up into the nasal passage to the ceiling of the nose, to the level of the top of the eyeball,where it meets the floor of the brain.

Two Louisiana residents died in 2011 of amoebic encephalitis after using tap water to rinse their nasal passages, which was thought to be due to contaminated tap water, but was never proved then. This summer a 12-year-old Florida boy and a 12-year-old Arkansas girl got infected; only the girl survived. So far from 1962, there have been 132 documented infections from the amoeba, almost all being fatal. Though. it is a rare occurrence, it is highly concerning to the 40,000 Parish residents who are scared to use the tap water to drink or give to their pets or even wash their face! Minnesota has reported two infections in the past few years, but the most affected are the Southern states, with more than half the total in Florida and Texas.

Health officials have stressed the low risk involved to residents insisting that swimming and bathing cannot bring about an amoebic encephalitis. Normally, the amoeba is found just above the bottom of fresh water, feeding on bacteria, though late summer warm water seems to be the ideal condition for its reproduction. Swimming pool chlorine kills this microbe. Right now the officials are pumping up atleast eight times more than the usual chlorine into the municipal supply system to kill the amoeba. Boiling also kills the microbe. People are however, advised not to put their heads under tap water while bathing. Also, drinking water fountains at schools have been closed as a precaution.

We have to wait for the results of retest that will be conducted after some time on the tap water to see the effects of excess chlorination on the amoeba

Watch the informational Video: How a tiny Ameoba can eat your brain?

Heartless world ...

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