Brain-eating amoeba claims third victim
August 18, 2011
ATLANTA (AP) — Two children and a young man have died this summer from a
brain-eating amoeba that lives in water, health officials say. This month, the
rare infection killed a 16-year-old Florida girl, who fell ill after swimming, and a
9-year-old Virginia boy, who died a week after he went to a fishing day camp.
The boy had been dunked the first day of camp, his mother told the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. Those cases are consistent with past cases, which are usually
kids — often boys — who get exposed to the bug while swimming or doing
water sports in warm ponds or lakes. The third case, in Louisiana, was more
unusual. It was a young man whose death in June was traced to the tap water
he used in a device called a neti pot. It’s a small teapot-shaped container used
to rinse out the nose and sinuses with salt water to relieve allergies, colds and
sinus trouble. Health officials later found the amoeba in the home’s water system.
The problem was confined to the house; it wasn’t found in city water samples,
said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana’s state epidemiologist. The young man, who
was only identified as in his 20′s and from southeast Louisiana, had not been
swimming nor been in contact with surface water, Ratard added.
He said only sterile, distilled, or boiled water should be used in neti pots. –Yahoo News
ALBANY, NY — Mosquito bites are a summer staple, but the department of
health now warning New Yorkers that the Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)
virus has officially arrived. “It’s extremely rare, it doesn’t happen very often
but when someone gets EEE from a mosquito, it can actually be very devastating,”
said Dr. Darin Price, from Capital Care Pediatrics in Guilderland. That devastation
was felt this week in Oswego County, after four-year-old Maggie Wilcox died from
a brain infection on Sunday—two days before her fifth birthday. Her family isn’t
sure when she was bitten, but they know the virus spread quickly. “In one week,
this disease attacked and destroyed the brain function of a beautiful, healthy
5-year-old little girl,” said Michael Wilcox, Maggie’s uncle. Maggie Wilcox is the
only confirmed case of triple E this summer. Dr. Price says the symptoms are
vague and include fever, nausea, extreme headache and fatigue. Diagnosis
can often be a struggle and once the virus is contracted there is no treatment.
“With mosquito bites, it’s just one of those things that are unavoidable,
unless you plan on never going outside,” Dr. Price said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027012/Brain-eating-amoeba-claims-victim.html
August 18, 2011
ATLANTA (AP) — Two children and a young man have died this summer from a
brain-eating amoeba that lives in water, health officials say. This month, the
rare infection killed a 16-year-old Florida girl, who fell ill after swimming, and a
9-year-old Virginia boy, who died a week after he went to a fishing day camp.
The boy had been dunked the first day of camp, his mother told the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. Those cases are consistent with past cases, which are usually
kids — often boys — who get exposed to the bug while swimming or doing
water sports in warm ponds or lakes. The third case, in Louisiana, was more
unusual. It was a young man whose death in June was traced to the tap water
he used in a device called a neti pot. It’s a small teapot-shaped container used
to rinse out the nose and sinuses with salt water to relieve allergies, colds and
sinus trouble. Health officials later found the amoeba in the home’s water system.
The problem was confined to the house; it wasn’t found in city water samples,
said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana’s state epidemiologist. The young man, who
was only identified as in his 20′s and from southeast Louisiana, had not been
swimming nor been in contact with surface water, Ratard added.
He said only sterile, distilled, or boiled water should be used in neti pots. –Yahoo News
ALBANY, NY — Mosquito bites are a summer staple, but the department of
health now warning New Yorkers that the Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)
virus has officially arrived. “It’s extremely rare, it doesn’t happen very often
but when someone gets EEE from a mosquito, it can actually be very devastating,”
said Dr. Darin Price, from Capital Care Pediatrics in Guilderland. That devastation
was felt this week in Oswego County, after four-year-old Maggie Wilcox died from
a brain infection on Sunday—two days before her fifth birthday. Her family isn’t
sure when she was bitten, but they know the virus spread quickly. “In one week,
this disease attacked and destroyed the brain function of a beautiful, healthy
5-year-old little girl,” said Michael Wilcox, Maggie’s uncle. Maggie Wilcox is the
only confirmed case of triple E this summer. Dr. Price says the symptoms are
vague and include fever, nausea, extreme headache and fatigue. Diagnosis
can often be a struggle and once the virus is contracted there is no treatment.
“With mosquito bites, it’s just one of those things that are unavoidable,
unless you plan on never going outside,” Dr. Price said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027012/Brain-eating-amoeba-claims-victim.html
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