The woman contracted a fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba and died eight days after developing symptoms.
A Texas woman died from an infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba days after she cleaned her sinuses using tap water, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case report.
The woman, an otherwise healthy 71-year-old, developed “severe neurologic symptoms,” including fever, headache and an altered mental status, four days after she filled a nasal irrigation device with tap water from her RV’s water system at a Texas campsite, the CDC report said.
She was treated for primary amebic meningoencephalitis — a brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, often referred to as the “brain-eating amoeba.” Despite treatment, the woman experienced seizures and died from the infection eight days after she developed symptoms, the agency said.
In most places, the tap water is pretty safe (old lead pipes and neglected areas notwithstanding).
N. Fowelri requires something like 30 times the standard chlorine dose to kill. In municipal water systems, the most common source is biofilm that builds up in pipes in the water system and more often in the home. This is especially true for older homes and poorly maintained apartment buildings.
I know it’s all the rage right now to shit on the US when and where one can, but our water system isn’t the place to do it.