Louisiana’s Department of Health has detected brain-eating amoeba in two of the state’s water systems. Residents, however, can still drink the water– they just have to make sure it doesn’t get in their nose.
Naegleria fowleri a single-celled living organism commonly found in soil and warm freshwater bodies such as lakes and rivers, was detected in the Ouachita Parish’s North Monroe Water System and Terrebonne Parish’s Schriever Water System last week Thursday. Naegleria fowleri is also called the brain-eating amoeba because when it enters the body through the nose it can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a fatal brain infection that destroys brain tissue.
“We found the amoeba even though the chlorine levels were acceptable and we thought that would be enough to keep it at bay, it’s hot this summer last summer we didn’t get any positive hits at all this summer we’ve got two already,” Dr. Jimmy Guidry, Louisiana state health officer, told local publication Knoe News.
The Louisiana Department of Health notified the water system and local officials of their findings on Thursday afternoon, and have asked water system officials to change the disinfection method to the free chlorine method for 60 days in order to rid the water systems of existing amoeba. To provide further information for concerned residents, the Department of Health with other local officials and leaders held a meeting at Sterlington High School on Saturday morning, Knoe reported.
“We did not know about the amoeba being in the water until well after our children were bathed and played all day, by the time we saw the post of Facebook,” Mary Jans, a parent at the meeting said.
Each year the department samples public drinking water systems for the ameba and so far has collected a total of 540 samples since 2013, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. But apparently, this is not the state’s first exposure to the brain-eating amoeba. In 2015, several of the state’s water systems were positive for it, and in 2011 three people including a child died from it. The 2015 case, was due to the lack of proper chlorine maintenance but this time around officials are not sure what the cause is, according to Knoe.
In the mean time officials have assured residents that their tap water is safe to drink, but is urging them to avoid activities that could result in water getting in their nose.
“The one child that died here from the drinking water was on the slip and slide for hours with water just going up his nose for hours, so we’re telling people don’t pull out the slip and slides this summer, while we have the amoeba in this water system. Let’s be careful,” Guidry said on Saturday.
PAM infections are relatively rare but are quickly fatal. The fatality rate is over 97 percent; only four out of 143 known infected individuals in the United States from 1962 to 2016 have survived, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fourth person to survive the infection was a 16-year-old Florida teen who contracted it last August.
Because the amoeba thrives in warm temperature, when an infection occurs it’s likely to happen during the summer months of July, August, and September and when there are prolonged periods of hot temperature that result in higher water temperatures. The body can contract PAM when water gets in the nose via water activities such a swimming or diving in warm water such as lakes and rivers or by swimming in inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or tap water. However, the body will not be infected by drinking contaminated water, CDC says.
Initial symptoms of PAM, which start about five days after infection, include headache, fever, nausea, or vomiting. Later symptoms can include stiff neck, confusion, lack of attention to people and surroundings, loss of balance, seizures, and hallucinations. And when symptoms start to occur the infection can cause death within about five days, CDC says.
While the Louisiana Department of Health works to resolve the issue, they are advising residents to follow other CDC preventative measures.
