Talk:Naegleriasis

Other means of infection?

Can you get this from other ways than just swimming in an infected lake? Could eating fish from an infected lake spread the naegleria fowleri to the human body and cause the same effects? Gorovich 16:03, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Unless it is a special subgroup of fish which you used to eat with your nose, I have serious doubts about it. Crusher 13:42, 18 January 2009 (CET)

-

I am uncertain just how much detail is acceptable or desirable. Naegleria spp. typically flagellate when their growth medium is diluted, i.e., they are added to water. The flagellate stage is temporary because it is non-feeding and non-dividing. The flagellate reverts to the amoeboid stage after a few hours. Inducing flagellation by the transfer of amoebae from the seeded non-nutrient agar plates to sterile water is the fastest means to screen for Naegleria. Additional test can then be used to confirm N. fowleri. Incubation of the seeded plates at 35C will help select for N. fowleri by eliminating most amoebaes that cannot grow at that elevated temperature.

Shel 01:03, 28 November 2006 (UTC)Shel

I added a link to a brief description of Primary Amoebic Meningeoncephalitis --User:Tanail 20:04, 29 March 2007 (UTC)}}

Any control methods?

This is some nasty stuff, and a clear threat to public safety. Does this organism have any natural enemies / competitors / predators that a lake manager or other authority could introduce to control its presence? knoodelhed 05:49, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

probably not, but its very easy to avoid. you can avoid it with nose plugs, not swimming in warm fresh water, etc. 12.86.69.234 (talk) 19:16, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Cortical Blindness

Cortical blindness is when the patient thinks he can NOT see, but actually has some visual perception left through non-cortical pathways. There is are also forms of "hysterical blindness", where patients imagine they are blind but actually have a physiologically normal visual system.

I suppose there must be cases where patients imagine they can see when they cannot, but that wouldn't be cortical blindness, it would be a delusional state in a blind person.

However, since I haven't seen "House", I can't correct the entry. Maybe someone who has can figure out whether "House" got it doubly wrong, or whether merely this entry got it wrong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.26.10.162 (talk) 01:13, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Specious Reference to Global Warming

There are no studies that establishes a correlation between global temperatures and the N. fowleri infection rates. This misleading conjecture belies the complex interactions of fresh water eco-systems and human immunology. The citation should be omitted unless or until there are supporting facts. Jasonsadventure 20:12, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

It is true that there is no study showing direct increase in infection and global temperature increase. However it is known that increasing water temperature favors the growth of pathogenic naegleria. Therefore increasing global temperatures -> increasing water temperatures -> increase populations of naegleria fowleri. See the following primary reference:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=1975164

Fritzlaylin (talk) 20:32, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Anton Babinski's Blindness

Though this symptom is depicted in the television series "House", it is not actually a problem associated with n. fowleri infection. Anton Babinkski's blindness is when the sufferer truly believes he can see, but is in truth blind. It is not a "delusion", but a neurological symptom. Which, as I've stated, is not presented in PAME.

--Corrupted Chocobo (talk) 19:12, 25 January 2009 (UTC)Corrupted_Chocobo

Are the numbers reported worldwide or US?

This should be clarified, otherwise it's pointless even stating the numbers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.234.210.9 (talk) 07:08, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Meningitis

I've noticed a some confusion about the word "meningitis." I would like to humbly offer some clarification and a more detailed explanation of why I made my most recent change to this article.

In the case of the tragic death of Aaron Evans, it has been widely reported that he was "misdiagnosed" with meningitis. Meningitis literally means an inflammation of the meninges, which are the outer three layers of the central nervous system. In the case of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM - infection from the N. fowleri amoeba which enters the central nervous system), it is not incorrect to refer to it as "meningitis." When the amoeba enter through the nasal mucosa, they very rapidly cause inflammation, which quickly spreads to the meninges as the amoeba move toward the frontal lobe of the brain.

The confusion about meaning behind the word "meningitis" is understandable. Even in common usage among nonmedical laypersons, we refer to bacterial meningitis and viral meningitis interchangeably as simply "meningitis." In the case of N. fowleri, it is more specifically, amoebic meningitis. It might be helpful if we began attaching the appropriate descriptors before the word "meningitis": bacterial, viral, amoebic and even aseptic. But since that's a lot of specification for a general population that doesn't have a whole lot of practical need for recalling such detail, the next best thing is if we just come to an understanding that the term "meningitis" is something of an umbrella term.

The issue of "misdiagnosis" in the case of Aaron Evans is only with regard to the cause. The diagnosis was accurate, but the etiology/cause was not yet determined, and unfortunately, there was not enough time to determine the true cause before Mr. Evans' had died. However, even with an accurate understanding of the etiology, as this article very nicely articulates, Mr. Evans' prognosis would likely have been bleak. Bitterfly77 06:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Not an amoeba

I do not want to sound like some PAME denialist, but technically Naegleria is not a true amoeba but an excavat like euglena, that is more closely related to plants than true amoebas (amoebozoa). "Amoebic" for PAME is a medical term refering to the generic morphology of the parasite. (True amoebic diseases are Amoebiasis, Amoebic dysentery, Extraintestinal Amoebiasis, Amoeba Cutis, liver-colored sputum that are caused by Entamoeba histolytica whick is a true amoeba). Nonetheless it should be a taxonomy section clarifing this.--92.118.191.48 (talk) 14:50, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

"Naegleria fowleri is a free living amoeba..." Maybe that "amoeba" should be changed with "amoeboid"?

I agree it's definitely not an amoeba, and the current quote about it: "Although not a true amoeba, the organism is often referred to as an amoeba for convenience" is misleading and untrue. Anytime it's referred to as an amoeba is incorrect, and we shouldn't be encouraging people to make the same error, especially since it's such a common error. plcoffey (talk) 21:26, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

The CDC says its an amoeba... Id rather believe the experts than some random person on wikipedia. No offense 12.86.69.234 (talk) 19:18, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

CLEANUP

Someone before me put strange references within the INFECTION section at the bottom which do not show up at all as reference numbers- e.g. [11], once saved. I do not know how to fix this. Keithw7462 (talk) 05:50, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

reported death

On August 31, 2010, Kyle Lewis, 7-year-old Arlington, Texas boy died from the rare Naegleria Fowleri infection while swimming in a river near Glen Rose, Texas. (http://cbs11tv.com/health/7.Year.Old.2.1889894.html). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the infection that claimed Kyle's life is very rare in the United States. Since 2001 only 33 cases have been diagnosed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.182.246.51 (talk) 03:27, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

On 22nd October a death of a 54 year old man happened in Karachi, Pakistan (http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2010/10/28/brain-eating-amoeba-pakistan) - there are reports of more deaths caused by this fungus, there might also be a possibility to see a rise in its occurence as due to the recent floods in pakistan Drawab (talk) 12:02, 28 October 2010 (UTC) Awab

Formatting

I tried to update the reference for my son's case of amebic encephalitis (28) and did not use the correct formatting. If anyone knows how to fix the HTML, I would appreciate the help. Docgompf (talk) 19:21, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

I've tidied it up. I'm sorry for your loss. --Avenue (talk) 12:26, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Lifecycle Cyst Stage: Question re Temperature

The article states in last sentence in the Cyst stage sub-section of Lifecycle:

N. fowleri has been found to encyst at temperatures below 10°C.

I had intended to add the equlvalent Farenheit number, but decided to check the source first. Surprisingly, the source did not, to my understanding, say what it is cited as saying. I read it to state that NF encysts when kept at temperatures between 12 and 20 degrees C. But I lack expertise and may have misunderstood the source article.

Will a more qualified editor please verify this information? Thank you. Reverence Still (talk) 20:25, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

Amount of Water

hey how much water would have to go up your nose anyway? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.26.84.151 (talk) 13:20, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

I dont think it matters. However, it has to reach a certain point up your nose. 12.86.69.234 (talk) 19:20, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Survivors

according to what I found online there are only ten survivors, can anyone here confirm this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.26.84.151 (talk) 13:20, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Listing of cases

I understand this is in the news now, so people are going to be trying to add info about the new case, but this is not notable to this article considering there are about 3 cases per year in the US alone. It's not reasonable to list every single time this happens unless there is something particularly notable about the case (like the Neti pot one). - 68.51.33.90 (talk) 03:34, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

Agree. I'll do some editing. /Julle (talk) 17:31, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Less used name

Why has the new name of Naegleriasis been used? The Centre for Disease Control uses Primary amebic meningoencephalitis which is also the much more often used name on searches. ? --Iztwoz (talk) 19:08, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

No strong feeling. That was the term the ICD10 used [1] Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:01, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Split content

Content of organism has been split to Naegleria fowleri. --Iztwoz (talk) 08:43, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Just a note that in the last 30 days, Naegleria fowleri had about 22179 views (which redirected to this page until recently), while Naegleriasis only had 1058 views. The split does make sense, but just a heads up that most traffic while be people coming from the species page likely looking for information on the disease. We'll want to make sure the articles sync up well and people find their way easily from the species page to the disease page. Kingofaces43 (talk) 03:23, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

There is not much content at Naegleria fowleri thus IMO both are better dealt with together much like we do at hepatitis A. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 07:53, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

I've been thinking the same as well. Often times a species and it's "problem" get split with the species article essentially having nothing left, while the other article can get a bit bloated. In this case, I think we can condense Naegleriasis quite a bit (namely listing all the different countries) and have a straightforward merge. My preference would be to have N. fowleri be the main article, but I'll see what I can do for making this article a bit more concise. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:58, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

IMO people are typically looking for information about the disease rather than the organism in question. Thus better to have it at the disease name. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:50, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

True, which is why I'm not super strong one way or another about split/merge right at this moment. That being said, most people are finding finding this topic through the organism page, while redirects from other search terms not mentioned yet include primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (7652 views), amebic encephalitis (40 views), and naegleria infection (1 view). Just as my own allegory, most reports I've heard (mainly about a recent case in Minnesota) refer to the species without the an actual disease name, which could explain the differences in traffic somewhat. I'm going to focus on what can use work in this article first before pondering about a merge for a bit though. Kingofaces43 (talk) 21:16, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Epidemiology

I've been glancing over the Epidemiology section, and it reads like an indiscriminate list list to me. Instead of having a small set of accounts (in most cases) for each country, should we instead just list what countries it has been found in? Some more detailed or interesting cases (i.e., netti pot usage) could be moved elsewhere in the article, but a lot of this information could be condensed since I don't think we need to list the various accounts of the disease. Just wanted to see people's thoughts on this section before working on it. Kingofaces43 (talk) 01:30, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

We could split this off into a subpage called Epidemiology of naegleriasis and just leave the overview you suggest. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:10, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

This page fell off my radar for a bit, but I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to do the overview first then think about whether a split is really needed or not. I'll put together an edit in the next day or two and see what people think. Kingofaces43 (talk) 19:01, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I took a stab at a much briefer summary table. I left all the references intact for now, but I think I'd rather see a single source for each country summarizing the number of official cases rather than news reports. An issue for another day though. The table could be improved to have four columns: country, # cases, # survivors, environment where infection occurred in an isolated case, or where it typically occurs, but I'll let it be here for the night. Kingofaces43 (talk) 03:21, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Review

Fresh from AAC: doi:10.1128/AAC.01293-15 JFW | T@lk 20:48, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Treatment section seems out of date

See CDC http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/treatment.html I'd want a professional to spell that out, rather than me getting something wrong. ˥ Ǝ Ʉ H Ɔ I Ɯ (talk) 00:34, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Updated some. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 08:54, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

I read through the recent case reports and reviews and tried to clean it up. Pgcudahy (talk) 03:32, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Table

The table below is WP:OR - claiming for example that there has ever been 1 case in australia on the basis of one news report is just... ludicrous.

Naegleriasis cases by country

Country	Cases
China	1 in 2016
Costa Rica	1 in 2014
Czechoslovakia	16 from 1962-1965
India	3 from 2001 to 2009 (two infants and one adult) and 1 in 2016
Iran	1 infant in 2012
New Zealand	8 from 1968 to 1979 in geothermal water
Pakistan	69 from 2012 to 2014
United Kingdom	2 in 1969 and 1 in 1979, with 2 historic cases suspected retrospectively
United States	133 between 1962 and 2015 with most cases in the Southeast U.S.
Venezuela	1 in 1998 and 2 in 2006
Australia	1 infant in 2015

References

-- Jytdog (talk) 00:26, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

Questionable paragraph

"The number of cases of infection could increase due to climate change.[27] In 2016, an infection was contracted in Maryland, four miles south of the Pennsylvania border;[28] this was the northernmost [29] North American case other than the three or four Minnesota cases from 2008 to 2015.[30] Additionally, the numbers of reported cases are expected to show an increase, simply because of better informed diagnoses being made both in living patients and also in autopsy findings.[31]"

So why focus on the Maryland case at all? And I assume we are restricting to North America in order to leave out the 16 cases reported in Czechoslovakia one paragraph earlier? This paragraph just seems weird.

there was some SYN going on there. Jytdog (talk) 02:35, 6 September 2017 (UTC)