PHOENIX ? It seemed like a headache, nothing more. But when pain killers and a trip to
the emergency room didn't fix Aaron Evans, the 14-year-old asked his dad if he was
going to die.
''No, no,'' David Evans remembers saying. ''We didn't know. And here I am: I come home and
I'm burying him.''
What was bothering Aaron was an amoeba, a microscopic organism called Naegleria fowleri
that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain.
The doctors said he probably picked it up a week before while swimming in the balmy
shallows of Lake Havasu.
Such attacks are extremely rare, though some health officials have put their
communities on high alert, telling people to stay away from warm, standing water.
''This is definitely something we need to track,'' said Michael Beach, a specialist in
recreational water-born 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, Naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health
officials say they've noticed a spike in cases, with six Naegleria-related cases so far
? all of them fatal.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298338,00.html
the emergency room didn't fix Aaron Evans, the 14-year-old asked his dad if he was
going to die.
''No, no,'' David Evans remembers saying. ''We didn't know. And here I am: I come home and
I'm burying him.''
What was bothering Aaron was an amoeba, a microscopic organism called Naegleria fowleri
that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain.
The doctors said he probably picked it up a week before while swimming in the balmy
shallows of Lake Havasu.
Such attacks are extremely rare, though some health officials have put their
communities on high alert, telling people to stay away from warm, standing water.
''This is definitely something we need to track,'' said Michael Beach, a specialist in
recreational water-born 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, Naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health
officials say they've noticed a spike in cases, with six Naegleria-related cases so far
? all of them fatal.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298338,00.html
