NYCkayaker As if there aren't enough dangers to kayakers out there...

[jtobin at warpdriveonline.com]

Another fine mess you've got us in to.

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:27:17 -0400
  David Gottlieb <peekamoose at optonline.net> wrote:
> This seems like an Enquirer headline... But it is for 
>real.... Better wear
> those nose clips....
> 
> Here is the link to the story below:
> 
> http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KILLER_AMOEBA?SITE=KTVK&SECTION=HOME&
> TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
> 
> Sep 29, 1:03 AM EDT
> 
> 6 Die From Brain-Eating Amoeba in Lakes
> 
> By CHRIS KAHN 
> Associated Press Writer
> 
> Other News Video
> 
> Advertisement
> 
> 
> Buy AP Photo Reprints
> 
> 
> 
> PHOENIX (AP) -- It sounds like science fiction but it's 
>true: A killer
> amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose 
>and attacks the
> brain where it feeds until you die.
> 
> Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are 
>extraordinarily rare,
> it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike 
>in cases has health
> officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases 
>in the future.
> 
> "This is definitely something we need to track," said 
>Michael Beach, a
> specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the 
>Centers for Disease
> Control and Prevention.
> 
> "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go 
>up, it does better,"
> Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, 
>we'd expect to see
> more cases."
> 
> According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria 
>fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh
>FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, 
>from 1995 to 2004.
> This year health officials noticed a spike with six 
>cases - three in
>Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows 
>of only several
> hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia 
>in the 1960s.
> 
> In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, 
>was infected with
> the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. 
>At first, the teen
> seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a 
>headache.
> 
> "We didn't know," Evans said. "And here I am: I come 
>home and I'm burying
> him."
> 
> After doing more tests, doctors said Aaron probably 
>picked up the amoeba a
> week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake 
>Havasu, a popular
> man-made lake on the Colorado River between Arizona and 
>California.
> 
> Though infections tend to be found in southern states, 
>Naegleria lives
> almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty 
>swimming pools, grazing
> off algae and bacteria in the sediment.
> 
> Beach said people become infected when they wade through 
>shallow water and
> stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up 
>the nose - say, by
> doing a somersault in chest-deep water - the amoeba can 
>latch onto the
> olfactory nerve.
> 
> The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into 
>the brain, where it
> continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain 
>cells," Beach said.
> 
> People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff 
>neck, headaches and
> fevers. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain 
>damage such as
> hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.
> 
> Once infected, most people have little chance of 
>survival. Some drugs have
> stopped the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who 
>have been attacked
> rarely survive, Beach said.
> 
> "Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two 
>weeks," he said.
> 
> Researchers still have much to learn about Naegleria. 
>They don't know why,
> for example, children are more likely to be infected, 
>and boys are more
> often victims than girls.
> 
> "Boys tend to have more boisterous activities (in 
>water), but we're not
> clear," Beach said.
> 
> In central Florida, authorities started an amoeba phone 
>hot line advising
> people to avoid warm, standing water and areas with 
>algae blooms. Texas
> health officials also have issued warnings.
> 
> People "seem to think that everything can be made safe, 
>including any river,
> any creek, but that's just not the case," said Doug 
>McBride, a spokesman for
> the Texas Department of State Health Services.
> 
> Officials in the town of Lake Havasu City are discussing 
>whether to take
> action. "Some folks think we should be putting up signs. 
>Some people think
> we should close the lake," city spokesman Charlie 
>Cassens said.
> 
> Beach cautioned that people shouldn't panic about the 
>dangers of the
> brain-eating bug. Cases are still extremely rare 
>considering the number of
> people swimming in lakes. The easiest way to prevent 
>infection, Beach said,
> is to use nose clips when swimming or diving in fresh 
>water.
> 
> "You'd have to have water going way up in your nose to 
>begin with" to be
> infected, he said.
> 
> David Evans has tried to learn as much as possible about 
>the amoeba over the
> past month. But it still doesn't make much sense to him. 
>His family had gone
> to Lake Havasu countless times. Have people always been 
>in danger? Did city
> officials know about the amoeba? Can they do anything to 
>kill them off?
> 
> Evans lives within eyesight of the lake. Temperatures 
>hover in the triple
> digits all summer, and like almost everyone else in this 
>desert region, the
> Evanses look to the lake to cool off.
> 
> It was on David Evans' birthday Sept. 8 that he brought 
>Aaron, his other two
> children, and his parents to Lake Havasu. They ate 
>sandwiches and spent a
> few hours splashing around.
> 
> "For a week, everything was fine," Evans said.
> 
> Then Aaron got the headache that wouldn't go away. At 
>the hospital, doctors
> first suspected meningitis. Aaron was rushed to another 
>hospital in Las
> Vegas.
> 
> "He asked me at one time, 'Can I die from this?'" David 
>Evans said. "We
> said, 'No, no.'"
> 
> On Sept. 17, Aaron stopped breathing as his father held 
>him in his arms.
> 
> "He was brain dead," Evans said. Only later did doctors 
>and the CDC
> determine that the boy had been infected with Naegleria.
> 
> "My kids won't ever swim on Lake Havasu again," he said.
> 
> ---
> 
> On the Net:
> 
> More on the N. fowleri amoeba:
> 
> http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/naegleria/factsht-naegleria.htm#what
> 
> Happy paddling!!!!!
> 
> 
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Joe Tobin
Murray Fire and Life Safety
30 Crest Road
Hillsdale, N. J. 07642
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