Warm water stirs up deadly microbe

By at 30 June, 2009, 6:31 pm



You can’t see it, taste it or smell it but it’s there. “It’s an amoeba that lives in warm fresh water, it’s called Naegleria fowleri,” according to Al Gray of the Hernando County Health Department. The micro organism is becoming active in lakes and ponds because the water temperature in many now exceeds 80 degrees. The amoeba lives in the muddy bottom and comes into contact with people after the mud is stirred up. “It becomes functional, its metabolism starts to go,” Gray said. People become exposed to the deadly organism when warm water rushes into the nose. “Almost 95 percent of people who get it will die,” according to Dr. G. Malhotra, of Spring Hills Central Walk-In Clinic. Symptoms typically manifest themselves three to

seven days after a swimmer has taken a dip into a fresh water lake. Those symptoms usually include head ache, fever and nausea. “If the symptoms of head ache or neck stiffness, which suggest meningitis, you should go to a doctor immediately, no matter what,” Dr. Malhotra said. Exposures are rare and no cases have been diagnosed in Hernando County. Nonetheless the Health Department issued the warning, in part, because school is out for the summer and lakes can be inviting for kids on long hot summer days. Hernando County is the third Florida county to issue the warning. For more information call the Hernando County health Department at 352-540-6812.  

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Warm water stirs up deadly microbe

Categories : Florida | Tampa




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