Fatal brain-eating microbe found in Lake Jackson, Texas water supply

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54313110

by open-source-ux • 6 years ago

183 158 6 years ago

bbc.co.uk

dustinmoris• 6 years ago

Start panic buying water now.

userbinator• 6 years ago

Authorities in Lake Jackson later said that people could begin using the water, but must boil it before drinking it.

The CDC says people cannot get infected by swallowing contaminated water

Those two statements seem to contradict each other.

frostburg• 6 years ago

The water needs to enter the nose, but given the design of our throat it's a good idea to boil it anyway.

TeMPOraL• 6 years ago

Yup. As experienced by anyone who was drinking something while they read or heard something funny. Suddenly, you have your drink coming out of your nose.

toyg4• 6 years ago

The fact that an air intake borders our brain is a massive security weakness in our "intelligent" design (the quotes are for sarcasm). It's like allowing HTTP calls from your webservers to be routed, in some circumstances, to your not-firewalled, not-SSL, not-password-protected database. Like building a massive bank vault with all sorts of protective layers, then adding a small unlocked door that opens on the street.

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.

mcarmichael• 6 years ago

At worst, the Lake Jackson authorities are being excessively cautious. When drinking, there's a slight chance of some liquid not being swallowed, after all.

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.html

nabla92• 6 years ago

They don't exactly contradict if you read them carefully. They were probably answer to different question.

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.

inglor_cz• 6 years ago

This is a known risk for people who rinse their nasal passages with salt water.

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.

switch11• 6 years ago

yeah, you have to be very careful when doing this

people in many countries have died from this

it's very rare. However, you don't want to be the poster child for it

kwanbix• 6 years ago

Died for cleaning their nose with water?

farseer• 6 years ago

Shouldn't the salt kill the microbes? All you have to do is leave your salted water for a while.

sva_• 6 years ago

As far as I know the solution used for sinus rinses is isotonic to the cells. Although I'm not sure if those microbes need the same salt content as humans (0.9%), but I would presume so.

fencepost2• 6 years ago

The particular microbe here has a cyst form for inhospitable environments.

nabla92• 6 years ago

Yogis in India traditionally did it with their own urine.

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.

nxpnsv• 6 years ago

Hmmm, trying to figure out if I’d prefer the brainbugs...

krtkush• 6 years ago

As an Indian I have never heard of own urine being used to clear nasal passage. It has always been salt water or plain water.

Could you please provide some source?

bananaface• 6 years ago

This is a great anecdote, I don't know why you're being downvoted

codegladiator• 6 years ago

Amaroli is different thing and is not related to anything passing from the nose.

You are probably mixing up Neti and Amaroli.

https://www.aypsite.org/319.html ( see under heading Using Urine with Nasal Wash)

tyingq2• 6 years ago

If you have a UTI, there could be eColi or worse in your urine.

whazor• 6 years ago

Semi off topic: I used to think that I have a chronic cold. But apparently I was getting sick from my dust mite allergy. An anti inflammatory drug really did wonders for me.

emptysongglass• 6 years ago

Which one do you use? Because I've been fighting dry, clogged sinuses for five years now.

harrylucas• 6 years ago

What one do you take? I currently take allergy tablets every day and would love something to just help it

crossroadsguy6• 6 years ago

Is it same as every morning waking up with mucus in the throat? Kinda thick/hard - sometimes it flings out when I cough it out. Doctors have me had samples tested but there was no infection. So they just write 10 days Allegra (and a month saline water spray 3-4 times a day) and that's it. But it keeps happening. Been happening since last 2 years.

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)

oxymoran3• 6 years ago

Rinsing my nasal passage daily with a salt water rinse has done wonders for my allergies. I use a little bottle and saline solution called Nasopure.

swsieber• 6 years ago

I also seem to have allergies but they only get out of hand when I eat a lot of sugar.

polishdude20• 6 years ago

Which drug did you use? I get the exact same thing but I take standard loretadine tablets like once a week and they don't seem to make a difference.

pmorici3• 6 years ago

Using distilled water instead of from the tap is another way to eliminate this risk.

verelo• 6 years ago

Would a UVC filter handle this bug? I just bought a house that uses lake water, we have lots of filters, wondering if they are enough.

Loic2• 6 years ago

Boil it three times in a row if you want to be really safe. Boil, wait 30s to 1 minute, then boil again.

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.

JaakkoP• 6 years ago

Agree with your method of boiling the water for a longer period of time, but this doesn’t have much to do with handling milk.

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.

foobiekr• 6 years ago

This is called "fractional sterilization" and while interesting for historical reasons is probably not something you really want to have to do.

HenryBemis• 6 years ago

And right when I was thinking that "that thing survives boiling????" And how about washing machines and dishwashers? They tend to raise the water temperature to 60°C (depending on selection) and there is always detergent included.

jwiz• 6 years ago

You can get distilled water from the pharmacy, also, if you are lazy. :)

civil_engineer2• 6 years ago

CNN story that documents a positive test for naegleria fowleri in splash pad water at Lake Jackson civic center where the six-year-old victim visited: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/brain-eating-amoeba-found-...

It is unlikely that the splash pad infestation emanated from the public drinking water supply.

sjg0075• 6 years ago

Eh? Splash pad water is from the public drinking supply, that's how it works. Same with pools, your bath etc...

sokoloff3• 6 years ago

I think GP's point is that there are many other sources of contamination after the water is placed in the splash pool.

nightfly• 6 years ago

Can someone update the title to include the actual city? Fight clickbait!

jeffhou• 6 years ago

Lake Jackson, Texas btw (for anyone checking the comments first)

tyingq2• 6 years ago

Apparently, it's the Brazosport Water Authority, and the warning applies to 6 cities and 2 prisons: "Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute and Rosenberg, Texas, as well as for the Dow Chemical plant in Freeport and the Clemens and Wayne Scott Texas Department of Criminal Justice corrections facilities."

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.

mhh__2• 6 years ago

Is it clickbait if it's on bbc.co.uk?

partyboat15862• 6 years ago

Yes

ascorbic• 6 years ago

It's the BBC. "Lake Jackson, Texas" isn't going to mean anything to most of its audience.

j0ej0ej0e2• 6 years ago

isn't this actually fine to drink and only any issue when you put through your nasal passages?

pmorici3• 6 years ago

That is my understanding.

j0ej0ej0e2• 6 years ago

Seems a bit over the top to put this warning out when it is fine to drink.

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...

yissp• 6 years ago

just pray nobody makes you laugh while you're drinking

booleandilemma• 6 years ago

The mouth and the nose are too close to be risking it though.

rasz• 6 years ago

Dont you ozone your water in US?

cheschire• 6 years ago

The federal drinking water regulations are here: https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national...

Anything not on that list is not blanket applicable to the U.S.

boltefnovor• 6 years ago

2020 has it all.

jcims• 6 years ago

I just want to remind everyone what naegleria fowleri look like:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/8/130814-amoeba...

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/brain-eating-amoeba-...

Aardwolf• 6 years ago

Thanks I hate it

el_dev_hell• 6 years ago

Zero hyperbole: That first image from National Geographic ruined me for several hours.

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.

sizzle• 6 years ago

Do you have a disliking of clowns by any chance? Cause that's instantly where my mind went when I saw this microbe. Eerie looking, to say the least.

NamTaf• 6 years ago

Adam Savage's podcast Still Untitled did a really fantastic episode [1] back around Halloween 2018 where they had a molecular biologist come on and talk about his work. The stories he tells are absolutely fascinating and I thoroughly encourage everyone wiht any interest in molecular biology and crazy stories to check it out.

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.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzzD2F73iGU

CreRecombinase• 6 years ago

Joe Derisi is a really incredible scientist. A "founding father" of genomics.

legohead• 6 years ago

Just watched that, thanks, it was fascinating. I'm sort of confused though -- didn't this guy basically prove that the carrier for Ebola could very well be reptiles and specifically Boa constrictors? The wikipedia on Ebola mentions bats and monkeys, no mention of Boas at all!

keeganpoppen• 6 years ago

thanks for encouraging people to actually listen to it because it is great, and Joe DeRisi (the molecular biologist in question) is super engaging

hexbinencoded• 6 years ago

N. fowleri is difficult to contract but it's often fatal when it happens.

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.

koboll• 6 years ago

It's pretty simple to prevent neighborhoods from having to be "rebuilt" after a hurricane: require all construction to be concrete. Such laws are common in Florida and the Caribbean and probably need to be put in place along the Gulf Coast too.

jofer7• 6 years ago

That would be counter-productive. The risk from hurricanes in this area (i.e. relatively inland western gulf coast) isn't wind. It's water.

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.

joehandzik2• 6 years ago

Are we proposing to relocate every resident and business along the US gulf coast? I don't think Texas is more or less susceptible to hurricanes than the rest of the gulf.

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.

jliptzin• 6 years ago

The inland northeast (Upstate NY, Vermont, NH, Maine, etc) seems to be pretty well insulated from climate change for now.

jofer7• 6 years ago

Seriously?? Are you that ignorant and bigoted?

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."

fibers• 6 years ago

Seriously?? Are you that ignorant and bigoted?

I don't think you can be bigoted against a region.

adsjhdashkj3• 6 years ago

I dunno, it does seem reasonable to me. Including your (albeit too wide) statement.

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?

29athrowaway2• 6 years ago

Following the same logic, we should evacuate all the states that depend on the Ogallala aquifer, an aquifer that will be pumped dry in a couple of decades from now.

Those states will become a desert: South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico.

bluedays• 6 years ago

Crazy. I remember last year when the guy died from this thing. I live in the same area as The Fantasy Lake park where he got it, so it was pretty memorable. I wonder if this means that we are starting to see this virus more often. If we are why? Is this a result of global warming? Or is this just the availability heuristic? I hope it's just a mental bias on my part, because the alternative is terrifying.

bluedevil2k• 6 years ago

It’s not a virus, it’s an amoeba.

hoten• 6 years ago

Yes, there's a theory that it's becoming more common. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri

jdeibele• 6 years ago

I used to rinse my nose with tap water. Then this story came to my attention abut 2 years ago and I've never done it since.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/rare-brain-...

Fatal brain-eating microbe found in Lake Jackson, Texas water supply

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