Vita gazette – A person in the US state of Florida has died due to damage to his brain by “Naegleria fowleri”, known as a “brain-eating amoeba”, which is transmitted while cleaning his sinuses with tap water.

A man in southwest Florida died after becoming infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba, which state health officials say was “possibly due to sinus rinse practices utilising tap water.” In a written statement from the Charlotte County Health Department in Florida, it has been confirmed that a person who recently cleaned his sinuses using tap water died from being infected with “Naegleria fowleri”.

“Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic single-celled living amoeba. Infection with Naegleria fowleri is rare and can only occur when water contaminated with amoebae enters the body through the nose. Therefore, you cannot become infected by drinking tap water,” the statement said.

The health agency advised residents of Charlotte County to use only distilled or sterile water when preparing sinus rinse solutions, boil tap water for at least 1 minute and wait for it to cool before sinus rinse.

Residents were also warned not to sniff while bathing, showering, washing their face or swimming in inflated plastic pools.

Amoeba is transmitted through the nose.

The micro-scale, single-celled Naegleria fowleri enters the human body through the nose, causing an infection in the brain and often fatal. The amoeba, primarily found in fresh waters such as lakes, rivers and canals, does not pass from person to person.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that the mortality rate due to infection, which causes symptoms such as headache, nausea, vomiting, loss of balance and hallucinations, is high, with only four surviving out of 154 cases detected between 1962-2021.

Symptoms can start with a sharp headache.

The CDC says the first stage of symptoms can include a severe frontal headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. The disease can quickly progress to the second stage, which ranges from a stiff neck, seizures and mental issues to a coma.

The mechanism that causes people to die is swelling of the brain, as a result of both the amoeba’s release of toxic molecules and the immune system’s attempts to fight off the invader.

The CDC says the disease moves quickly: the median time for death is just five days. And scientists are still trying to develop a rapid test that can detect.

PAM is difficult to detect because the disease progresses rapidly so that diagnosis is usually made after death,” according to the agency.

The brain-eating amoeba loves the heat.

Naegleria fowleri becomes more prevalent as temperatures rise in freshwater lakes and rivers. Most U.S. cases have been found in Southern states and in the height of summer.

“Infections usually occur when it is hot for prolonged periods, which results in higher water temperatures and lower water levels,” according to the CDC.