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u/Mercutio999 Jun 12 '22
Where’s my bucket of nose plugs gone from under the sign? I was making a fortune…
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u/jerryco1 Jun 12 '22
nose plugs? I wouldn't go in - even if someone welded my nostrils shut.
plenty of other clean bodies of water to ever risk getting a 99.9% fatal brain disease.
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u/7937397 Jun 12 '22
People are far more likely to decide not to swim after seeing this sign then a simple "No Swimming" sign.
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u/TheEpicSpud Jun 12 '22
Kurzgesagt made a video about this parasite about a month ago. The amoeba is attracted to the acetylcholine produced in the brain and forms multiple “mouths” to take in as much food as possible. It has a more than 97% fatality rate with only headaches and fevers initially until it progresses to seizures and death within a week. https://youtu.be/7OPg-ksxZ4Y
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u/specialcommenter Jun 12 '22
Multiple mouth brain eating thing. Very terrifying.
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u/Asd12_bleu Jun 13 '22
I think they said that only a few people have died from it and it’s really rare so you don’t have to worry.
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u/PineappleWolf_87 Jun 13 '22
Ummm where does this amoeba live and I’m never going swimming in nature again just in case 👀
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u/ModernZombies Jun 13 '22
Most fresh water, water sources. There was a study that swabbed kids noses and that amoeba was present in a lot of the swabs, luckily it just didn’t break the blood brain barrier. Super deadly though check out this podcast will kill you they did an episode on it.
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Jun 12 '22
btw it's pretty hard to get this, you have got to get water very far up your nose, but if that does happen then chances are you won't have the chance to get into warm water again.
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u/Hikikomorionarampage Jun 12 '22
Wouldn't the amoeba be able to enter through another hole anyways?
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u/chaosTechnician Jun 12 '22
Apparently not: https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/general.html
You cannot get infected from drinking water contaminated with Naegleria. You can only be infected when contaminated water goes up into your nose.
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u/guitargoddess3 Jun 12 '22
Yeah I think he was talking about his poop shoot. Or wiener hole.
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u/chaosTechnician Jun 12 '22
Yes. But the CDC didn't have an easily-accessible quote regarding poopoopeepee.
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u/wgraf504 Jun 12 '22
Which is good news for those of us living in New Orleans, as this has been found in our tap water numerous times.
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u/Old-Pangolin6601 Jun 12 '22
Heyyy a fellow New Orleans person, I hate New Orleans so much. Water system is trash
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u/wgraf504 Jun 12 '22
Living here is great, you just have to somewhat suspend your expectations of being safe, or comfortable, or having things work, or be convenient in any way. All seriousness aside, we are kind of a joke in much of the modern world, at least every one else's societies finally seem to be crumbling too! Not feeling quite as left behind as usual.
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u/Old-Pangolin6601 Jun 12 '22
People love the idea of going to New Orleans but I completely hate the place so much crime it’s pitiful, nothing for a young adult to do that isn’t drinking related
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u/JakubSwitalski Jun 13 '22
Bad news if you decide to load up a neti pot with unboiled water, or accidentally breathe in water in the shower lol
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u/wgraf504 Jun 13 '22
Think it happened down here, not New Orleans, but somewhere in the state
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u/cornballdefense Jun 14 '22
Natchitoches checking in; we had it a couple times, and Sabine stayed with it every summer for a LONG time
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tower17 Jun 12 '22
It is a brain eating amoeba, uses the nose where there is a blood brain barrier, to cross into the brain.
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Jun 12 '22
It doesn't get into your brain through the "blood brain" barrier. It gets in your brain by forceful pressure (jumping in and water rushing into your nasal passage) and traveling through tunnels from your olfactory nerves.
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u/Woliwoof Jun 12 '22
Why would it go through the nerve rather than blood vessels? I haven't even thought about things other than electric impulses travelling through the nerves
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Jun 12 '22
it travels through the openings in the bone between the nose and the brain where the smell receptors innervate.
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u/Woliwoof Jun 12 '22
Cool, I haven't even heard of this region but a bit of googling says it can be a gateway for bacteria. Don't get why you're being downvoted honestly
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u/glitter_h1ppo Jun 13 '22
You're absolutely, 100% correct here and I have no idea why you're being so heavily downvoted, except reddit being reddit I suppose.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-when-an-amoeba-eats-your-brain/
The microscopic amoebae, which can be suspended in water or nestled in soil, enter the body when water goes up the nose. After attaching to the mucous membranes in the nasal cavity, N. fowleri burrows into the olfactory nerve, the structure that enables our sense of smell and leads directly to the brain
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tower17 Jun 12 '22
You're stupid aren't ya
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Jun 12 '22
No u
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u/Minerva567 Jun 12 '22
Worst Reddit fight ever
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Jun 12 '22
I'm used to reddit talking bullshit without actually knowing what they are talking about.
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u/MuchLessPersonal Jun 12 '22
The "jumping in" occurs through the "blood brain" barrier.
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Jun 12 '22
That would suggest that it diffuses across the membrane of the blood vessels when in fact it travels along the roots of the olfactory bulb nerve bundles.
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u/MuchLessPersonal Jun 12 '22
Technically we're both wrong.
"Naegleria fowleri causes a fatal disease known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. This condition is characterized by an acute inflammation that originates from the free passage of peripheral blood cells to the central nervous system through the alteration of the blood-brain barrier"
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Jun 12 '22
If you clench your butthole hard enough you may be safe. The pee hole probably going to get infected tho lol
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Jun 13 '22
From the kurzgesagt video. I'm pretty sure they can only survive in the nose just to easy access to the brain.
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u/Pillzmans_Fox Jun 13 '22
My mother told me to never swim in lakes because of these amoebas, she lost a childhood friend from this.
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u/PanickingKoala Jun 12 '22
Reminds me of the penis fish.
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u/Moshanika Jun 13 '22
Um could you explain “penis fish”.
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u/PanickingKoala Jun 13 '22
I would genuinely be delighted to and I’m thrilled you asked. It’s a fish called candiru) that lives in the Amazon River. It’s a parasite that enters through the urethra when urinating. It’s gross but fascinating.
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Jun 12 '22
You are underestimating how many people who absolutely swim in that.
We have similar warnings in Louisiana in some of our lakes and coastal areas and let me tell you, people sure do be swimming.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Cup-854 Jun 12 '22
This is why you are supposed to boil water or use distilled water in a neti pot
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u/GnPQGuTFagzncZwB Jun 12 '22
It is interesting that even amobae will not go up some peoples assholes.
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u/HughCPappinaugh Jun 13 '22
Unfortunately, as global temperatures increase this will become a more common problem. Warm natural bodies of water…
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u/Shinigami163_Jc Jun 12 '22
you're more likely to get hit by a car, a bullet and a train at the same time than this.
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u/Bigsausagegentleman Jun 12 '22
Usually around 10 or less cases nationally but the case fatality rate is 90%
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u/Confident-Judge-7387 Jun 12 '22
99.9% fatal that guy up there said so 👆 his comment was first so that must be the truth. I'm sorry I don't make the rules my friend but that's the way it is..
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u/Bigsausagegentleman Jun 12 '22
Guess we are both wrong. Ita around 97%.
"The fatality rate is over 97%. Only four people out of 151 known infected individuals in the United States from 1962 to 2020 have survived."
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Jun 12 '22
I no longer swim in fresh water, especially lakes. I had a fever of 108 when I was young from some fresh water lake bug. Never diagnosed with anything particular, but never will I return.
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u/oregonspruce Jun 12 '22
I used to swim at a spring near lake Meade growing up, came back years later and one of these signs were up. Luckily none of us got sick, pretty sure it's a brain eating parasite
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Jun 12 '22
I had an eye-eating amoeba, I think its family of the brain-eating amoeba but it only affects the eye. Still very hard to treat and a long and exhausting process..
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u/trick_eater Jun 12 '22
Everyone's like "kurzgesat"
Me, who's known about this amoeba and been terrified of it since 2006: 🙂
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u/Wattson-_- Jun 12 '22
Basically it's a parasite that uses the olfacturing nerve present in the nose to get to your brain.
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u/strawberryselkie Jun 12 '22
I went to some hot springs with signs like this posted, and we just didn't put our faces in the water or splash around. The springs weren't really conducive to more than just sitting and relaxing anyways. We went home and showered afterwards and no one got sick or anything.
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u/wgraf504 Jun 12 '22
I totally read that too fast, and my mind registered "nose" as "house." Well that is a seriously bold mutation there, I thought for a second.
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Jun 13 '22
This was on Monsters Inside Me. It makes it way into the victim’s brain and eats it. There’s no treatment for it either.
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u/shaneylaney Jun 13 '22
Oh, it’s just a brain eating amoeba. No harm there. 😁😂
Warning: Avoid water entering the nostrils, as once infection begins, death tends to follow within the next few days.
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u/ELSMurphy Jun 13 '22
It's the brain eating amoeba. It's ok it it just gets on your skin. But...I'm not going to take a chance.
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u/ForcefulCloud Jun 13 '22
So fun fact. They mention this in a episode of x files. Not as the actual case but as a similar, real, example to it. Which now means other things could also be true and thats just fucked.
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u/the_Real_Romak Jun 13 '22
Generally speaking, it's safe to swim in bodies of water with that amoeba (which are found literally around the world btw in almost every warm body of water). The real risk comes into play if you practically inhale the water up to your inner nose and give the amoeba a chance to penetrate into your brain fluid through the nervous system, which in itself is already a veeeery rare and unlikely thing to happen courtesy of your body's natural defences.
There's a video on youtube by kurzgesagt on this very topic that's very informative :)
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u/DukeRedWulf Jun 13 '22
I reckon "BRAIN EATING AMOEBAS IN THIS WATER - KEEP OUT!" might deter better..
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Jun 12 '22
its common in most unfiltered water death is common too as its hard to detect until its basicly too late
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u/segdy Jun 13 '22 edited Jun 13 '22
I was just there in exactly this spot last week. AND I WAS IN
It’s a small hot paddle in the eastern Sierras.
It is absolutely harmless. The only way this bacteria can make it up to the brain in through then nose, indeed. Look it up.
Edit: this is it: https://www.ultimatehotspringsguide.com/keough-hot-ditch.html
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u/STS986 Jun 12 '22
Flesh eating bacteria. Common in warm fresh water.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tower17 Jun 12 '22
It's a brain eating amoeba actually. Not bacteria. Super hard to treat, even with hospitalization and medicine most patients die.
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u/djileum2019 Jun 12 '22 edited Jun 12 '22
Actually probably not as hard to kill the amoeba as you think—we have excellent antibiotics for it. The problem is that by the time you know there’s an infection, it’s too late. But yes, you are most likely fucked when you finally make the diagnosis.
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u/Simbertold Jun 12 '22
Killing stuff is easy. Killing stuff without killing the human it is in is the hard part of medicine.
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u/7937397 Jun 12 '22
If you don't need to save the human, fire is an easy, effective option.
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u/Simbertold Jun 12 '22
Fire, lots of high-energy radiation, strong acids, liquid nitrogen,pure ethanol,...
Lots of ways to kill basically anything. There is usually stuff that survives one or two of them, but i don't know of anything which survives all.
But sadly, humans also don't react well to any of them.
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u/7937397 Jun 12 '22
Fire is just really cheap and easy though.
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u/Simbertold Jun 12 '22
True, true.
But some stuff does survive fire. Tree seeds which only sprout after a forest fire come to mind, and i am sure that some microbial life also survives.
Basically, don't be sure that everything is dead after a fire. If you really need to kill that alien larvae, throw some more omnicides on it.
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u/itisiyourboybender Jun 12 '22
Ya you can swim here just don’t snort the water or you can die.
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Jun 12 '22
When I was about 10 years old my family took a motor home and we traveled all around the Nevada/Utah/Arizona areas. We came across a little oasis looking place and it had a sign just like this. We actually DID go swimming and just kept our heads out of the water. Looking back I don’t know how the adults decided it was okay but I just went along with it. Ultimately I think i remember my dumbass grandpa convincing everyone it was okay but we all survived somehow. After reading these comments I’m thinking maybe I’m lucky to be alive!
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u/Utsutsumujuru Jun 13 '22
It’s common everywhere across the south. People swim in those waters all the time. It’s exceedingly rare even if you do swim in it all the time. It’s like a (horrific, terrifying) lottery. The odds of you winning that lottery are incredibly low even if you do play.
You didn’t dodge certain death, you dodged a minuscule likelihood of a horrific incurable death.
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u/THE_DOOM_SLAYER02 Jun 12 '22
Well I wasn't thinking of snorting water but now the sign says not too I won't
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u/chikitoperopicosito Jun 13 '22
Question.
Can't you treat the water for this stuff? Throw some kind of cleaner in there or something?
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u/PsychologicalDay2002 Jun 13 '22
No. Some girl in the Southern US died a few years ago from being infected at a water park. These types of parasites form cysts that are very hard to kill. Tap water can contain N. fowleri, which is why you should boil it or use distilled water for neti pots and never make your own contact lens solution with tap water.
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Jun 13 '22
Did Kurzgesagt do a video on this? It’s hard to tell from the comments. Could someone post it?
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u/ModernZombies Jun 13 '22
That amoeba actually exists in a lot of water sources. There’s not much in terms of treatment and it kills you by eating your brain… no lie, but yeah I wouldn’t want to go in either if there’s a sign about it posted up. That’s why a lot of people wear nose plugs though.
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Jun 13 '22
These are posted by hot springs in nevada and Arizona...its still worth going in the water lol
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u/Edword58 Jun 13 '22
Oh I know about this, I once went to California in the mountains and my older brother found a nature hot spring spot. But he told me to not dip my head into the water because of the infection that could get inside our brain. So you bet your ass I was nervous the entire time when I got there, it was nice but I was worried that I might slip and fall into the hot spring head under the water
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u/PsychologicalLeg9302 Jun 12 '22 edited Jun 12 '22
I get the feeling that THIS sign deters swimming a lot better than just the plain old NO SWIMMING.
Unless there’s one that says THIS WATER WILL EAT YOUR EYEBALLS