Well, maybe. BUT...
Brain-Eating Amoeba Linked to 6 Deaths
An amoeba that typically lives in lakes and enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain has been linked to six deaths in the United States this year, federal health officials report.
Even though encounters with the single-celled organism are rare, it has killed six boys and young men this year. The increase in cases has health officials concerned, with predictions of more cases in the future, the Associated Press reported.
"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the news service. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."
According to the CDC, the amoeba is called Naegleria fowleri, and it killed 23 people in the United States from 1995 to 2004. But health officials have noticed a rise in cases this year, with three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since the microscopic bug's discovery in Australia in the 1960s, the AP said.
Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, subsisting off algae and bacteria in the sediment. People become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom, Beach said.
Symptoms of infection include a stiff neck, headaches and fever. In the later stages, victims will show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.
Once infected, most people have little chance of survival, the AP said.
See also:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298338,00.html
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/austin/stories/090807kvueamoebicawareness-mm.b61b59e9.html
From http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/austin/stories/090807kvueamoebicawareness-mm.b61b59e9.html :
"Two years ago,
her son died from amoebic meningitis. 7 year old Brandon Hess was on a
camping trip with his father at Lake Summerville. [Ed. note: Yes, this is the same lake where we went camping two weekends ago. I may have only a week to live...]
"He was swimming and he got water up his nose, and that is how they think it went in through his nose, and that's how he got it," said Brown.
Brandon suffered flu like symptoms, and was dead a week later. Since Brandon's death there have not been any reported cases of amebic meningitis in Texas, no cases, until now.
Friday, it was confirmed 22 year old Colby Sawyer of Lubbock was killed by the parasite after wake boarding in Lake LBJ.
12 year old Jack Herrera from the Austin area, died last month after swimming in Lake LBJ."
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Okay, this is NOT the kind of thing that's fun to read after camping at Lake Somerville, swimming in the lake, and catching a cold. I'm sitting here sniffling and thinking, "Oh, God, I have a brain-eating amoeba up my nose!" It doesn't help that I had that awful headache yesterday. Or that I have a stiff neck, today. (Just kidding, but you know, it's pretty horrible, just the same. Yeah, yeah - I know you're thinking, "That would explain a lot.")Anyway...
Might suggest to the kids (and adults) that they use nose-plugs and NOT do cannonballs off the canoes or docks. Note that boys seem to be more vulnerable than girls, and kids more than adults. (Perhaps because it's the boys who are most likely to be doing cannonballs.)
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