Aquatic amoeba attacks.Six boys/young men were killed this year by an extremely rare amoeba--Naegleria fowleri--this year, reported the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. in October. By entering the body through the nose, invading the central nervous system and attacking the brain, N fowleri is deadly; people rarely survive an attack, which can prove fatal within two weeks. Though infections tend to be found in southern states, N fowleri lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing off algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that and bacteria in the sediment. Infection occurs when people wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. The recent spike in cases--three in Florida, two in Texas, and one in Arizona--has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. (CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation ) concerned. "This is a heat-loving amoeba amoeba: see ameba. amoeba One-celled protozoan that can form temporary extensions of cytoplasm (pseudopodia) in order to move about. Some amoebas are found on the bottom of freshwater streams and ponds. ," says a CDC specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we would expect to see more cases." The deadly amoeba has killed 23 people in the United States from 1995 to 2004, according to CDC records. |
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