Man dies from brain-eating amoeba after washing nose with tap water

04 March 2023 , 12:00

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Once infected, the organism causes headaches, vomiting before usually leading to a fatal coma (Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

A man has died from a rare brain-eating amoeba that he likely contracted by rinsing their nostrils with tap water, health officials have said.

The Florida Department of Health confirmed that a person living in the state had died on Thursday from Naegleria fowleri, colloquially known as a "brain-eating amoeba."

The victim has not been identified but the agency said it suspected the patient had contracted the infection “as a result of sinus rinse practices” using tap water.

The infection occurs when the amoeba travels up the nose to the brain, destroying brain tissue and causing it to swell.

People cannot be infected by drinking contaminated tap water, but local residents are being advised to only use distilled or sterile water in sinus-rinse solutions.

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Brain-eating amoeba infection, naegleriasis (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Several US government agencies are investigating how the infection occurred, said Jae Williams, a department spokesman.

He added that officials are “working with the local public utilities to identify any potential links and make any necessary corrective actions”.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says infections are rare and only 31 Naegleria fowleri infections were reported in the US between 2012 and 2021.

But extreme droughts and heat, as a result of climate change, have made it easier for the organism to thrive in waters.

Once in the brain, it causes an illness known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis which gives symptoms such as headache, fever, nausea or vomiting and then progresses to a stiff neck, seizures and coma that can lead to death.

In the US, most infections have been linked to southern states, like Florida and Texas.

The amoeba can be found in warm freshwaters such as lakes, rivers and hot springs, and soil. It is very rare for people to contract it from pools or water parks that do not have enough chlorine to treat the water.

Only four people have survived out of 154 known infections in the US from 1962 to 2021, according to the CDC.

In July last year, Caleb Ziegelbaue, 13, was hospitalised in Florida after contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba.

In a rare case, he had been taken off his ventilator but was still fighting for his life. Now, he communicates with his family through sign language and is learning to talk again.

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"He is made of pure grit and determination, and it is exactly that which we are banking on to wake him up. I can't wait for him to share his story. It is his and only his to share", his mother Jesse Ziegelbauer said last year during a press conference

Rachel Hagan