The Most Horrible Parasite: Brain Eating Amoeba
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell・8 minutes read
A deadly amoeba called Naegleria fowleri resides in fresh water and can enter the human body through the nose, targeting nerve cells, causing severe symptoms, and often resulting in death. Despite its rarity, with only a few hundred cases reported in recent decades, the amoeba's ability to evade the immune system and the lack of effective treatments leave many unanswered questions.
Insights
- Naegleria fowleri, a deadly amoeba found in fresh water sources, enters the human body through the nose, targeting nerve cells and causing severe symptoms like headaches, fever, seizures, and hallucinations.
- Despite its rarity, Naegleria fowleri's ability to multiply in the brain, evade the immune system, and cause fatal inflammation highlights the urgent need for research into effective treatments and understanding its mechanisms of immune evasion.
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Recent questions
How long has the war between monsters been ongoing?
Billions of years
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Summary
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Deadly Amoeba: A Billion-Year Battle
- A war between monsters has been ongoing for billions of years, with Naegleria fowleri being a deadly amoeba that can enter the human body.
- Naegleria fowleri is a microbe that primarily resides in fresh water but can also survive in improperly treated water sources like pipes, swimming pools, and fountains.
- The amoeba enters the body through the nose, targeting nerve cells that release acetylcholine, a chemical it is attracted to.
- Once in the brain, Naegleria fowleri begins a destructive process, multiplying and attacking brain cells while evading the immune system's defenses.
- The immune system responds by causing inflammation, leading to fluid buildup in the brain and severe symptoms like headaches, fever, seizures, and hallucinations.
- The battle with the amoeba often results in death within a week of infection, with up to 97% of patients succumbing to the disease.
- Despite its deadly nature, cases of Naegleria fowleri infection are rare, with only a few hundred reported in recent decades.
- While the amoeba poses a serious threat, the likelihood of infection is low, and effective treatments are currently lacking, leaving many questions unanswered about its ability to evade the immune system.
