If you’re worried about being infected with a brain-eating amoeba when you go swimming, an expert suggests plugging your nose. There haven’t yet been any reports of an infection in Canada, and in the U.S. only 10 a year, according to Ian Young, an associate professor with the Toronto Metropolitan University in the school of occupational and public health. “It’s so rare,” he stressed several times in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday. Last week, a teenager in North Carolina had developed primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, colloquially known as a brain-eating amoeba. Symptoms of primary amebic meningoencephalitis can include several headaches, fever, nausea and vomiting and followed by stiff neck, seizures and coma. The illness often progresses rapidly and causes death within five days. Several media reports this week quote a North Carolina state health department statement that the teenager died from the illness on Monday. In an online fundraiser, the teenager’s mother, Monica Mendoza, wrote that she had taken her son to a hospital for severe symptoms on Aug. 21, but was sent home after a doctor examined him. The situation worsened “rapidly,” she wrote in the post, prompting a return to the emergency room the next day. Doctors there found that he had been infected. “Because it’s so rare, it’s difficult to diagnose,” Young said. Little risk of infection in Canada To this day, there are no reports of infections in Canada. The amoeba is naturally found in the environment, soil and freshwater sources, Young said. It’s more present in tropical regions but can also be found in temperate areas during warmer weather. “It prefers to live in water that’s at least 25 C,” he said, which is “on the warm side of most of our freshwaters.” Potentially, it could show up in any freshwater source where the water is warm, he said, and there is currently no “good way” to conduct surveillance for it. Plug your nose Even if the amoeba were present in a local freshwater source, it would need to enter via water up the nose to threaten an infection, he said. “What people could do, is sort of reduce their risk by trying to avoid getting water up their nose,” he said. “So, wear a nose plug or plug your nose first.” Getting sick after swimming in freshwater is more commonly related to fecal pollution or sewage contamination, Young said. “It’s still good to seek medical attention just incase anyone’s experiencing illness after swimming,” he said. However, he added, a physician may think the symptoms are similar to bacterial meningitis, which could be treated effectively with intravenous antibiotics if caught early. Advice to parents Young acknowledged that infection, when it happens, can be devastating for the patient and their family. “Even though the outcomes are very severe, it’s just such a rare occurrence,” he stressed. He advised checking water quality status before a visit to the beach and if swimming in very warm water, to keep it from entering your nose. “Just by swimming in the water with the organism doesn’t mean you’re going to get the illness,” he said. It’s too early say whether warming climates could increase the likelihood of it appearing in Canada. “At some point, unfortunately, we may see a case in Canada,” he said. “But at this time, we’re sort of just monitoring and taking precautions.”
