On Sep 29, 2007, at 6:25 PM, Joy Hecht wrote:

> I got this on a kayak list - didn't think it had a vanagon
> connection until
> I realized where this amoeba was killing people!

I don't think Lake Havasu in January will be an amoeba problem!  Now
the rest of the year could be if you don't wear your nose plug w/
your thong?

Pax,

Tom B.-what about your ears?

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Joy
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nyckayaker-bounces@rockandwater.net
> [mailto:nyckayaker-bounces@rockandwater.net] On Behalf Of David
> Gottlieb
> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 8:27 AM
> To: nyckayaker
> Subject: NYCkayaker As if there aren't enough dangers to kayakers
> outthere...
>
>
>
> 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