Fatal brain-eating microbe found in Lake Jackson, Texas water supply
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/8/130814-amoeba...
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/brain-eating-amoeba-...
I switched off my laptop and laid in bed.
No idea why. I've come back to this comment to post this. It's an eerie face like image (I refuse to look back at it) and it's seriously troubling.
I won't go into it because I'll spoil it, but suffice it to say that normal episodes are 20-30 mins, this one went for 70 mins and the first time I listened to it I immediately restarted it to listen to it again. The first half of the episode is a story that gets more and more insane as it unfolds. Afterwards, he goes into a few other shorter stories of his work.
Anyway, the link to this is because there's one story from about 38:15 to about 45 minutes in that discusses brain-eating amoebas he was involved in. It's not this exact one, but it's related to it. I recommend anyone who finds this interesting to check it out.
Although there's video on youtube, you really don't need video for it and your podcast app of choice should have an audio version of it.
I started doing this on a doctor's advice after a long bout of cold and I always boil the water, let it cool down and only then do the thing.
And then almost nothing the whole day except this feeling remains that something's there in the throat but rarely anything comes out - sometimes some semi-mucus (?) (or just spit - white but slightly thicker than spit - comes out)
I woke up every morning feeling terrible. Since then I made the following changes that have completely changed everything.
1) Got a robot Vacuum with hepa filter that cleans under the bed
2) Got dust mite covers for my pillow etc
3) Got a Hepa filter that runs constantly for both my furnace and my room
4) Installed a dehumidifier that lowers the humidity in the entire house. Dust mites loooove humidity above 50 percent.
Now I wake up feeling pretty decent everyday
It's a treatment, unless you're one of the people it causes frequent nosebleeds in. Ugh.
Also, since it's steroids (speaking as a layman) is it not like something that has lots of side effects? So a daily usage over prolonged periods of time may be undesirable?
The last doctor had also found out (after a CT scan) DNS and when he tried to inset a tiny camera up my nostrils he was not able to do so in one of them (that's when he suggested CT scan).
And my nose rarely runs. I mean it does little bit maybe couple of times a month when I catch common cold but on the daily basis it just doesn't. Also, what kind of specialist should I be approaching? The last doctor I saw was in Otorhinolaryngology. But that was more than a year ago - since then there's been nothing done related to it.
People can live like that forever without any issues. Linked to increased intracranial pressure, empty or partial sella, headaches that improve when laying down.
I had that, had trouble breathing every night, thought it was allergies, rinsed my nose but still every morning woke up with mucus in nose and throat. Metallic taste in mouth.
Only when I started powerlifting and got the headaches, doctors did an MRI, found empty sella, protrusions of brain tissue in sinuses and a quick procedure relieved me of my yearlong miseries that accompany the clogging.
I wake up feeling as fresh as when I was 10 years old.
Adding a HEPA air filter to your bedroom might help.
Washing all your bedding in hot water with allergy safe detergent; mattress protector; deep clean carpets; and always showering before bed would reduce pollen / mite activity.
A few over-the-counter supplements you might try:
* Mucinex D - an expectorant; common name 'guaifenesin'.
* NAC 'N-acetyl cysteine' - an amino acid - loosens mucus, among other benefits.
* Hot saline sinus rinses (ex Neilmed bottle)
I also have HEPA filter on the house HVAC.
I will try HEPA filter in my bedroom (can't do it for the entire house - it's quite big, open, and a shared apartment and not designed in that way really)
Not even regular coffee/tea other than occasional green/oolong/chamomile. Liquor even more in frequent. Normal rice/wheat based food with veggies and lentils on a regular basis. Occasional dairy and meat products. Yes, I do have eggs almost everyday (since almost as long I can remember).
It's a more recent (~1.5 years) phenomenon and I am in early 30s. Before this it just didn't happen at all and suddenly it became a daily thing.
0. https://chopra.com/articles/how-and-why-to-perform-bhastrika...
Any generic brand works, just realize it takes like 10 days to start working, so be patient. Use as little as possible, so I recommend starting with 1 spray a day.
I have a slight chronic sinusitis and I am currently trying a corticosteroid spray too.
Studies seem to say it works against chronic sinusitus. I am not sure how though.
If anyone is reckless enough to do the same, please thoroughly research the dangers of excessive iodine first. It is easy to err.
I never tried it deep in the nose though, only lower nostril. So it could still be higher up. But it hasn’t colonized the lower areas for years. Had it for 5+ years before realizing what it was.
Mind you I have no way of knowing if this is actual medical grade stuff that use in hospitals. But it seemed to work. On multiple mrsa outbreaks too: I had a few instances where it got outside the nose and this got rid of them.
What exactly are you doing with it? I wasn’t quite clear on how you’re going to get it deeper into the nose. I had had the mrsa in the lower nostril so I just used a q tip, but I didn’t get it into the nasal passages. (Nor do I know if it’s meant for such use). I also have congestion at night so I;m interested.
I will say that a jar like this lasts for many uses. If you’re eating honey it’s a small amount, but you don’t need much for topical use.
https://www.amazon.ca/Manukaguard-Medical-Grade-Manuka-Honey...
I would be irrigating the sinuses with it, diluted in warm (distilled!) saline water. I've done this with regular raw honey and haven't been too tempted since.
Edit: I found the following ad via your own link https://www.amazon.ca/MANUKAGUARD-Nasal-Spray-Medical-Grade/...
Manuka nasal spray...
Well....I guess it’s probably not actively destructive then, I guess the sinuses can deal with it. I’m going to look into this, thanks!
So in your case I guess you’re just diluting the honey in water to a certain degree. But the raw honey was uncomfortable as the reviews suggest.
If you’d like to talk more about mrsa/nasal stuff btw, my email is in my profile.
This comes from the traditional way we handled milk as it was fresh and unprocessed.
I then let it cool as usual before washing my nose.
You generally don’t want to bring milk to a boil as it creates a film on top and modifies the taste. Instead, you heat it to 162F / 72C to kill the bacteria and cool it down as quickly as possibly. There isn’t a “traditional” method going back generations, since it was only in the 1860s when Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization.
We know very well that you theoretically just need to cross the 68°C boundary to cook the proteins of the bacteria.
But if like me you happen to have been raised where the family had cows, you also know very well that in the morning at 4am, you do not play Pasteur. You want fast and secure.
Theory vs. practice.
people in many countries have died from this
it's very rare. However, you don't want to be the poster child for it
It sounds ridiculous, but people also die from drinking water.
The key difference is understanding that it’s not the “water”, it’s what’s in the water.
As an interesting aside; this is also why water kills electrical components, pure water is not a good conductive. But what’s in the water is.
It sounds discussing, but urine is usually quite pure (although not sterile as is the common myth) and it has the right temperature and salinity.
You are probably mixing up Neti and Amaroli.
https://www.aypsite.org/319.html ( see under heading Using Urine with Nasal Wash)
Could you please provide some source?
Yes. There is zero evidence to support any of its claims, nobody should do that. I just was pointing out that it exists, that it is a thing as an answer to the parent comment.
It is unlikely that the splash pad infestation emanated from the public drinking water supply.
https://hulafrog.com/brazoria-county-south-tx/lake-jackson-c...
Here is a report from a local newspaper:
https://thefacts.com/free_share/article_d044115f-7e55-5153-8...
It mentions positive tests for n. fowleri genetic material from the splash pad storage tank, from a nearby fire hydrant and from the hose storage bin at the deceased's home. Understand that this is not the same as discovering viable organisms in the water supply. It would be difficult, though not impossible, for these organisms to survive the water treatment processes, including the final disinfection step. It is possible, if disinfection malfunctioned at the water plant. If the treatment processes were working properly, one could still expect positive tests for genetic material for a variety of bacteria and viruses, but that would only indicate that they were present in the raw water source, not that they were viable organisms in the water supply.
A child died. It is important to try to discover the source of this tragedy. The people in this community are scared and suspicious of their drinking water. I hope the investigation uncovers the probable cause quickly.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/public-water-systems...
This is the least of their problems. LJ is between Houston and Corpus, which is a weather events, floods, and industrial petrochem disaster area. Honestly, it would be better long-term to relocate residents who are in the paths of increasingly-powerful and numerous hurricanes to the northwest rather than taxpayers subsidizing time-and-time again the stupidity of allowing people to build and rebuild neighborhoods in flood plains and right next to oil refineries. Climate change.
Have you ever lived here? It's clear you have _zero_ knowledge of the area.
What about SF or Seattle? The bay area is non-stop superfund sites, and unlike the gulf coast, there's _zero_ involvement from the companies that created the mess. Here, we have a few, but with _heavy_ mitigation from the companies involved. Y'all have absurd earthquake, fire, landslide, and drought risk.
Let's turn that around... How about: "Evacuate the west coast. No one should be allowed to live in California, Oregon, or Washington. It's just a drain on taxpayers."
I refuse to live in a flood plain. Why would you? Not only do i not want my house to be destroyed, but the insurance alone is a good incentive to not live there.
If fire repeatedly pops up in my neighborhood i'll do the same thing, move. Why wouldn't you?
If the insurance would be insane because statistically it's likely to repeatedly happen why should taxpayers fund that sinkhole? I'm normally super liberal with taxes, but there has to be a balance. I believe in "free" healthcare, but we can't promote bad health patterns, as it would be a needless drain on the healthcare costs. Likewise i'd support taxpayers covering these types of disasters, but if you know the area is insanely prone to disasters why should the taxpayers fund it?
You're playing the victim card too hard mate. I get your point, but i don't think it's a "region bigot" issue here. Yes, people should move out of fire prone areas, why on earth would you think otherwise?
The flood plains mostly aren't inhabited here. (Yes, there are some exceptions.)
The area isn't what everyone seems to think it is.
If insurance can calculate costs and decide what is too expensive to insure, we can too. That's all.
First off, the idea that this entire area is all in a floodplain or is repeatedly being rebuilt is just plain false. It ain't. End of story.
The bigotry comment is due to the history of the region. Flood control has historically been used to forcibly evict black communities, particularly along the gulf coast. Its a bit of a dog whistle here.
Yes, I'm a white guy. Yes, I'm still bringing it up.
Ever notice how it's only the majority non-white cities people are calling for forcibly evicting everyone from? Case in point: Houston, but not Galveston or Corpus Christi. New Orleans but not Baton Rouge or Covington.
Ever notice how it's the poorest communities that are at risk of losing their land, and not the wealthy-but-equally-flood-prone communities next door? (E.g. no one's saying "force people out of Katy", they're saying "force people out of the third ward")
Maybe you don't, but here, it's a big deal.
Historically, that same argument (it'd be better for everybody if no one lives there) is at the heart of a lot of egregious behavior by local and state governments (mostly local).
It's the reason people were _so_ pissed off about the arguments that big swaths of New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt. It's why "we will rebuild" was such a rallying cry.
And it's why targeting the main African American population center in the state specifically (Houston -- I'm not talking about Lake Jackson in this, as I don't know it that well.) and falsely claiming it's flooding all the time and constantly having to be rebuilt at taxpayer expense tends to provoke a strong response here.
> Flood control has historically been used to forcibly evict black communities, particularly along the gulf coast. Its a bit of a dog whistle here.
To what end? I'm not disputing you here because frankly i have completely zero idea - but i struggle to even understand the assumed motivation. Evict black communities from their home, but then later let them return (as most evacuations are temporary)?
Or is eviction different than evacuation here? Do they kick out the black communities calling the area unsafe, then move white communities in? Seems bizarre, but i'm often quite abstracted and puzzled by racist behavior. Again, not disputing, merely questioning.
> Ever notice how it's only the majority non-white cities people are calling for forcibly evicting everyone from? Case in point: Houston, but not Galveston or Corpus Christi. New Orleans but not Baton Rouge or Covington.
I really haven't, but this isn't something i pay attention to. I certainly wouldn't have read someones comment about forcibly evicting someone to assume they wanted to then, later, move white folks in.
> Ever notice how it's the poorest communities that are at risk of losing their land, and not the wealthy-but-equally-flood-prone communities next door? (E.g. no one's saying "force people out of Katy", they're saying "force people out of the third ward")
I'd be in favor of this situation if the state/taxes were paying for the "third ward", but less so Katy. Rich folks tend to live in nice areas, regardless of how much of a risk that area was in before money moved in.
Which isn't to say that taxpayers didn't _also_ cover the rich folks. I'm just saying i wouldn't immediately assume rich areas need tax payers to have their homes protected from floods. And, i'm generally against tax payers helping constant flood areas. Seems a waste of resources.
> Historically, that same argument (it'd be better for everybody if no one lives there) is at the heart of a lot of egregious behavior by local and state governments (mostly local).
Plenty of things have been used to commit horrible things - i don't see that as an argument of the idea being inherently bad. You can do good or bad with just about any tool/power.
You may be correct, but does it make living in Tornado Alley (or w/e random example) any more safe? Any less of a burden on the taxpayer? I'd imagine not.
> And it's why targeting the main African American population center in the state specifically (Houston -- I'm not talking about Lake Jackson in this, as I don't know it that well.) and falsely claiming it's flooding all the time and constantly having to be rebuilt at taxpayer expense tends to provoke a strong response here.
That seems perfectly fair. With all of this said, i haven't changed my view, but i imagine we agree more than disagree. Since i'm not making, imo, any grand exclamations. Merely saying that we shouldn't live in areas that cost too much to be worth it.
I know very, very little about the New Orleans incident, rebuild, etc. It just seems foolish to build a house on sand, is all.
Historically, the evictions are eminent domain. There's no returning. The local government simply forces you off your property, nominally paying you something, but often pennies on the dollar. At a broad brush, national-level, this is a good start: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=756342 I'll try to find some gulf-coast specific historical summaries in a bit.
The land usually then gets sold, often to developers. Here, the rationale is "flood control". Elsewhere it's "urban renewal". The end result is the same: "You can't stay here. Go to some other state/county".
Next, there's development. The real culprit in a lot of urban flooding is more urbanization than climate change. When you pave over more and more of the watershed, water reaches the streams more quickly. This leads to more flash floods, as more water reaches the trunk stream quickly (or reaches a drain that can't handle the volume in a lot of cases). Zoning doesn't help with this much. Buildings, roads, and parking lots just don't slow down and trap water the way trees and winding bayous do.
The main issue is that the poor communities are in the lower-lying / downstream areas, usually. Development happens upstream / in higher areas. Places downstream that _never_ flooded before now flood multiple times a year, because everything upstream is paved. The community that paved things over does great, the community downstream suddenly has to deal with all kinds of issues.
The community that paved things over then complains about the "taxpayer dollars that are going to support those stupid people that built where it floods". The folks downstream are forced out, and their property is sold to developers, and the cycle repeats.
This is the historical pattern that explains a lot of why people get _really_ touchy about the whole "why would you live here" part.
At present, the main controversy is around targeted buyouts, which can be a very reasonable way of handling things overall. They're voluntary (we'll give you X for your house, will you take it?), and only offered if a property has flooded multiple times or is deemed at extremely high risk of flooding. They're supposed to be held by govt and kept in an undeveloped state. In practice, it often gets more murky, with the properties quickly being sold, yet again, to developers. Targeted buyouts are a very good way to handle things -- it's the execution that folks often object to. Again, history plays a role.
One thing to end on: Nowhere is particularly immune to disasters. There are certainly lower-risk and higher-risk areas, but trying to mark _vast_ swaths off-limits will end poorly. My point is, saying all of the broader Houston-Beaumont region is uninhabitable is just silly. We have floods due to hurricanes. Other places have fires, or droughts, or earthquakes, etc. It's a game of "pick your poison". We're higher risk than, say, Denver, sure. We're lower risk than say, SF, or Seattle, or Miami though.
Those states will become a desert: South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico.
https://media.ruralradio.co/wordpress/2016/03/Ogallala-Aquif...
It also won't necessarily be "desert" when the aquifer is pumped dry. Best case, it looks more like the great plains and less like corn fields. Cheyenne gets 17 inches of rain per year, Amarillo gets 20 inches, so neither would be a desert.
Without the aquifer you cannot sustain the current crop yield, livestock headcount, many jobs would be impacted, and cost of living will rise. These phenomenons can have a cascading impact on other sectors of the economy... not only in the states sitting on top of the aquifer, but the entire country.
Perhaps it will not be a literal desert, but it will be a desert for the purposes of agriculture.
I don't think you can be bigoted against a region.
I'm a bit sick of being called an "ignorant hick" or a "fucking stupid redneck" just because everyone can tell where I grew up if they hear me speak.
Yeah, I can be outspoken, but being told that because I'm disagreeing about something technical in a professional setting really gets under my skin, and it happens a lot. People on the east/west coast really do hold it against you if you're not from the east or west coast.
The divide is totally 'rural' / 'urban'. I put scare quotes because I think the definition is local and fungible. There are towns of 100,000 in New York that voted 'red' and little cities in places like Montana that voted 'blue'
That all said, I'm sorry you get roped into the same crowd pushing for Bible study and creationism in public schools. Identity and politics are viewed as inseparable these days.
And from the looks of the northwest, there's a chance we'd be relocating folks into the path of worsening wildfires.
Climate change is serious and we should respond with corresponding urgency, but let's not pretend that there's anywhere in the US that is 100% guaranteed to be a safe haven.
Build on stilts, not concrete. There's a reason we build the way we do here. We're not stupid.
Concrete just _guarantees_ that the building is uninhabitable in 2-3 years due to the shrink-swell clays in the soils here. Wood flexes. Brick and concrete don't.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/rare-brain-...
I don't understand why you wouldn't boil water before putting it through your system like that anyway. Isn't it always recommended in that scenario...
The CDC says people cannot get infected by swallowing contaminated water
Those two statements seem to contradict each other.
I just hate that the smallest sinus infection can affect my overall system by producing massive headaches, or that these mofo organisms can just trek up my nose and feast on my brain cells. Clearly the Earth atmosphere is just too welcoming; selection on this trait was never forced, and here we are.
The minute we start making cyborg augmentations to improve filtering of our air ducts, I'll be the first in line.
Your eyes are actually an outgrowth of your brain and they're exposed right out in front. The eyes have their own extra defenses though.
Still, we have highly-effective sensors in other parts of our bodies, further away from the brain, and surely we could drop that check somewhere else. At least when it comes to eyes, one can make the argument that they should enable split-second reactions to run from that predator as soon as you spot it, so they should be as close as possible to the mainframe... whereas nobody is going to die if they can only smell wolf poo a second later.
I'm still alive today because I can detect smoke very early. This ability has saved me from indoor electrical fires and wildfires. Hunter gatherers who lived in makeshift shelters probably depended even more frequently on this ability.
If you're really worried about defending your brain from all comers, you should really start by having all your maxillary teeth pulled and replacing them with a denture plate. Their roots are a lot closer to your brain than you likely realize, and an untreated maxillary abscess is much more likely to quickly progress to fatal encephalopathy than you are to ever insufflate water containing N. fowleri.
Not the brain, just nose and mouth. Saying bye to colds, headaches, allergies, respiratory infections, with a simple filter? Fuck yes :)
> you should really start by having all your maxillary teeth pulled
Oh yeah, if I weren't so poor I would have done that years ago. I still hope to be wealthy enough, one day, that I'll be able to replace all my teeth with artificial ones that don't decay.
So, a mask with extra steps?
That, and you can be choked to death while eating always reminds me it's more a cruel joke than an intelligent design.
Market it as a COVID-19 solution, and you won't have any issues finding funding :-)
CDC is right. The route from bacteria to brain goes trough olfactory nerves and tract that connect directly to the brain. Just swallowing water is not dangerous.
Given the recent fatality, erring on the side of caution seems quite understandable.
If I were living in the region served by Brazosport Water Authority, I'd be more interested in the criteria used to proclaim the safety of the rest of the service area, especially after perusing this:
https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/web/2015/09/Brain-Eating-AmoebaScoffs-Chlorine-Water.htmlAnything not on that list is not blanket applicable to the U.S.
https://www.ketv.com/article/8-texas-cities-alerted-to-a-bra...
The prisons is a bad situation, as I imagine the prisonsers don't have much they can do about the tap in their cell. Some allow immersion heaters, some don't, and the prisoners typically have to buy them with funds their families provide.