Naegleria fowleri

Category: Cryptozoology, Myths and Legends

The Naegleria fowleri, also called Brain-eating amoeba, are a type of parasitic amoeba that can be found in all across the world in stagnant water: small lakes where the water gets very warm in summer, thermal pools, water heated by effluent from industrial processes, still warm reservoirs, etc. Once introduced to the water they can survive any temperature above freezing and grow fastest at a temperature of about 42°C.

These amoeba can take on three forms; a flagellate, amoebal and cyst form. In water they can mostly be found as small cigar shaped organisms with a long whip-like flagellate. In this highly mobile form they can infest their victim by entering trough the nasal cavities and then travel up the olfactory nerve, the nerve that is rESPonsible for the perception of smell. In this nerve they will change to less mobile the amoebal form and start dividing rapidly. Eventually they will contact the spinal fluid and return to their flagellate form in order travel up to the victims brain where they return to their amoebal form to feed of the tissue.
The cyst form is not used within the body as it’s a hibernation form that allows the amoeba to survive hostile conditions.

Symptoms
Early signs of an infection include a loss of smell, headaches, vomiting and a lack of energy, soon after the patient develops a fever thus creating the perfect living environment for the N. fowleri who Multiply at an accelerated speed. In about six days the patient develops mental conditions and fall into a coma and often die shortly after.

Treatment
The condition can only be cured if diagnosed in a early stage and by the prescription of antiparasitic drugs. But as only 144 cases have been noted throughout history very few have had this luck.
The most renown case of N. fowleri is an incident in the Tulsa are, where two Oklahoma boys, ages 7 and 9 caught it while swimming in hot stagnant water.

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