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Brain eating amoeba in the water?


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Australia's best-kept secret; the same ameoba are present in fresh water throughout Australia.

 

Don't dive or jump into rivers, dams or lakes in Australia. Main route of entry is via the nose; so you keep head above water when swimming in Oz, or swim in the sea.

 

Infections are rare, but nearly always fatal.

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I heard about it a few years ago, that and prion are nightmare fuel. 

11 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

If its not one thing its another.

 

Anyone else get the feeling that the planet is trying to rid itself of humans?

 

TD'

no, not any more than trying to get rid of pandaa or koalas... 

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4 minutes ago, restlessnomad said:

no, not any more than trying to get rid of pandaa or koalas... 

It's the humans, directly or indirectly, getting rid of these at a quicker rate than the planet is, so I couldn't really blame the planet if it wanted to get rid of us. 

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2 hours ago, Alastair said:

Australia's best-kept secret; the same ameoba are present in fresh water throughout Australia.

 

Don't dive or jump into rivers, dams or lakes in Australia. Main route of entry is via the nose; so you keep head above water when swimming in Oz, or swim in the sea.

 

Infections are rare, but nearly always fatal.

Typical Australia, the whole place is designed to sting, bite or just stomp you to a long and painful death or if you're lucky a short and painful death

:)

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8 minutes ago, Rumsky said:

It's the humans, directly or indirectly, getting rid of these at a quicker rate than the planet is, so I couldn't really blame the planet if it wanted to get rid of us. 

humans are just another animal who are part of the planet, wildly successful in surviving/prospering multiple conditions. The planet did not get rid of dinosaurs, the planet is not trying to get rid of us, the planet does not have a intent/purpose.

If it does have an intent,  it is certainly less keen to get rid of us compared to the days of cholera, plague and other mass killer diseases. May be the planet likes us. :)

Edited by restlessnomad
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20 minutes ago, restlessnomad said:

humans are just another animal who are part of the planet, wildly successful in surviving/prospering multiple conditions. The planet did not get rid of dinosaurs, the planet is not trying to get rid of us, the planet does not have a intent/purpose.

If it does have an intent,  it is certainly less keen to get rid of us compared to the days of cholera, plague and other mass killer diseases. May be the planet likes us. :)

Cows, sheep, chickens, rice and wheat are all quite obviously just using us as a tool to increase their population far beyond what they could have achieved on their own. We'll only know their real intentions when it's too late. 

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1 hour ago, restlessnomad said:

ha ha... I will stop... I 'respect' all beliefs, religious or qasi-religious. :)

I respect the right to hold those beliefs,  the actual beliefs on the other hand are largely stone age nonsense  :)

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And yet, if even insects or just only certain insects were to suddenly die out the human race would die out too and quite quickly become extinct. And then all of the nature, wild life and wee beasties on this planet would take over and flourish once again. We saw some of this happening during lock down.

Edited by bizzard
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43 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I respect the right to hold those beliefs,  the actual beliefs on the other hand are largely stone age nonsense  :)

Whereas I can only accept that idiots have the right to hold their various nonsensical beliefs, I just can't respect an idiot or his rights.

 

Shows what a miserable git I am but there it goes.

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Nature doesn't need to kill us off with brain eating Amoeba, nature has already given us canabis and alcohol for that. Brain eating Amoeba is just overkill. Nature doesn't need to double down, there must be another explanation, will have to have a beer while I ponder this one.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I stayed with the chap who first described this organism in the 80's when I was on a study trip to Australia (I'm an infection control nurse). Microbiologist called Rod Carter who worked in the Adelaide Children's hospital. He was examining a cerebrospinal fluid specimen from a child with meningitis down a microscope when something 'swam' across his view. Previously they cultured the CSF and of course no bacteria grew, so they kept getting cases of fatal meningitis that didn;t respond to the antibiotics you would usually use. He named it it Naegleria fowleri after his boss (smart move) then spent the next few years occasionally travelling the world lecturing on it. The good news is that it's easily cured with an antibiotic active against anaerobic bacteria called Metronidazole that you may also get for tooth abscess. Endemic in stagnant water holes in Aus, but everyone knows about it now. So not a brain eater.

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4 hours ago, Maanki said:

I stayed with the chap who first described this organism in the 80's when I was on a study trip to Australia (I'm an infection control nurse). Microbiologist called Rod Carter who worked in the Adelaide Children's hospital. He was examining a cerebrospinal fluid specimen from a child with meningitis down a microscope when something 'swam' across his view. Previously they cultured the CSF and of course no bacteria grew, so they kept getting cases of fatal meningitis that didn;t respond to the antibiotics you would usually use. He named it it Naegleria fowleri after his boss (smart move) then spent the next few years occasionally travelling the world lecturing on it. The good news is that it's easily cured with an antibiotic active against anaerobic bacteria called Metronidazole that you may also get for tooth abscess. Endemic in stagnant water holes in Aus, but everyone knows about it now. So not a brain eater.

It favours warm/hot water, so the New Zealand cases were in natural thermal pools. I think it was it's presence it the overland water pipeline from the River Murray to the towns at the head of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, that led to enhanced water treatment there. In fact that may be the case described above, as Val was a Flying Doctor Sister at Port Augusta at the head of the Gulf at the time so it was all pretty close to home for her.

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9 hours ago, Maanki said:

I stayed with the chap who first described this organism in the 80's when I was on a study trip to Australia (I'm an infection control nurse). Microbiologist called Rod Carter who worked in the Adelaide Children's hospital. He was examining a cerebrospinal fluid specimen from a child with meningitis down a microscope when something 'swam' across his view. Previously they cultured the CSF and of course no bacteria grew, so they kept getting cases of fatal meningitis that didn;t respond to the antibiotics you would usually use. He named it it Naegleria fowleri after his boss (smart move) then spent the next few years occasionally travelling the world lecturing on it. The good news is that it's easily cured with an antibiotic active against anaerobic bacteria called Metronidazole that you may also get for tooth abscess. Endemic in stagnant water holes in Aus, but everyone knows about it now. So not a brain eater.

That is a change. Back when this hit the news in Australia, they stated that there wasn't an effective treatment (early 80s). 

Sudden huge shift in general swimming habits. Favoured waterholes closed, people stopped diving in, everyone went to the beach instead. 

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24 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Glad my name’s not Brian.

There used to be a professional cricketer called Brian Brain. How he must have loved his parents' sense of humour.

He became a bit of a cult celebrity when a London pub-rock band named themselves after him.

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59 minutes ago, Athy said:

There used to be a professional cricketer called Brian Brain. How he must have loved his parents' sense of humour.

He became a bit of a cult celebrity when a London pub-rock band named themselves after him.

Nice.

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