WQP Magazine recently reported that the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed the presence of Naegleria fowleri in two of the state’s water systems: Ouachita Parish’s North Monroe Water System and Terrebonne Parish’s Schriever Water System.
Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism which occurs naturally in freshwater. It also goes by the much more menacing name of “brain-eating amoeba”. That’s because Naegleria fowleri can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a brain infection that is almost always fatal.
Despite how scary that sounds, the good news is that humans cannot be infected with Naegleria fowleri by simply drinking water. So it safe for residents in the impacted areas of Louisiana to consume the water.
So how does Naegleria infect people? According to the CDC:
“Naegleria fowleri infects people when water containing the ameba enters the body through the nose. This typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places, like lakes and rivers. The Naegleria fowleri ameba then travels up the nose to the brain where it destroys the brain tissue.”
While drinking water is still safe for residents, Louisiana health officials have urges residents to take some precautions to avoid getting water in the nose. These include:
- Not allowing water to go up your nose when bathing, showering, washing your face or swimming in small hard plastic/blow-up pools
- Running bath and shower taps and hoses for five minutes before use to flush out the pipes
- Not putting your head (or allowing children to put their heads) under bathing water
- Not allowing children to play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers where water could accidentally squirt up their nose, and avoiding slip-n-slides
