Question Has anyone ever gotten the Brain Eating Amoeba (Naegleria fowleri) while Scuba Diving?

[scottgrizzard]

Similar to a thread already posted (which seems now focused on Florida Man being immune), has anyone ever gotten the brain eating amoeba while scuba diving?

I did a search on Newspapers.com (seeing as brain eating amoeba deaths seem to make the news), and I got zilch for that term paired with scuba.

I ask because I teach in Lake Denton, and am asked about the amoeba all the time from students. I would like to be able to say, "no one has ever documented a case of Naegleria Fowleri contracted while scuba diving."

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Based on my observations on scubaboard, a brain eating amoeba would explain a lot of people.

 

[kinoons]

IIRC the amoeba in question lives in fresh water, and generally likes quite warm water.

Furthermore infection usually requires fairly “forceful” injection of contaminated water into the nose.

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but I’d guess that divers getting infected would be highly unusual.

Also given the seriousness of the infection if it happened I’d expect the community to hear about it.

How People Get Naegleria fowleri Infection

Understand the risks of a getting a rare but usually fatal <em>Naegleria fowleri </em>brain infection.

www.cdc.gov

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Similar to a thread already posted (which seems now focused on Florida Man being immune), has anyone ever gotten the brain eating amoeba while scuba diving?

I did a search on Newspapers.com (seeing as brain eating amoeba deaths seem to make the news), and I got zilch for that term paired with scuba.

I ask because I teach in Lake Denton, and am asked about the amoeba all the time from students. I would like to be able to say, "no one has ever documented a case of Naegleria Fowleri contracted while scuba diving."

This paper from 2021 says, "The most commonly reported exposure associated with PAM was swimming/diving, and the most common class of water source was lakes/ponds/reservoirs." It unfortunately doesn't specify exactly what is meant by diving. It also mentions water sports but examples given are water skiing, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Subcooled]

Similar to a thread already posted (which seems now focused on Florida Man being immune), has anyone ever gotten the brain eating amoeba while scuba diving?

I did a search on Newspapers.com (seeing as brain eating amoeba deaths seem to make the news), and I got zilch for that term paired with scuba.

I ask because I teach in Lake Denton, and am asked about the amoeba all the time from students. I would like to be able to say, "no one has ever documented a case of Naegleria Fowleri contracted while scuba diving."

The amoeba enters the human body through the nose.
It will have really hard time pushing through the glass first and then make an air jump to your nose...

 

[Subcooled]

This paper from 2021 says, "The most commonly reported exposure associated with PAM was swimming/diving, and the most common class of water source was lakes/ponds/reservoirs." It unfortunately doesn't specify exactly what is meant by diving. It also mentions water sports but examples given are water skiing, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.

Best regards,
DDM

We need to keep in mind though, that "swimming/diving" and "SCUBA diving" are different. The entry point might be a clue.

 

[kinoons]

This paper from 2021 says, "The most commonly reported exposure associated with PAM was swimming/diving, and the most common class of water source was lakes/ponds/reservoirs." It unfortunately doesn't specify exactly what is meant by diving. It also mentions water sports but examples given are water skiing, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.

Best regards,
DDM

I was taught that fairly forceful injection of water up into the nose was required for infection, not just a little sprinkle of water into the nose.


Diving (cliff jumping), jet skis, water skis, are all examples of how you can get a large flush of water into your nose.

Also consider how many people do these activities on the daily. Infection rate for this illness is usually 10-20 people total a year across the entire US.

Unless you’re diving in a hot spring I’d not lose any sleep over this at all. If you’re diving in a hot spring then pay particular attention to keeping the water out of your nose.

 

[Jai Bar]

I know of two cases (in 2022 and 2024) where individuals swimming in a fresh water lake died of cerebral infection caused by Naegleria fowleri. Water temperature at the shallows was 35 degrees in the summer.

Also, a family member got a nasty cornea infection swimming in a fresh water lake, caused by some type of Microsporidi. Took months to fully recover. So there's that too.

That said, there are probably millions of people doing water activities every year in the lake and the number of infections is extremely rare. Monitoring water samples also seldom finds anything of the sort, so the risk is extremely low.

I would say that there is by far- several orders of magnitude- more risk driving to divesite rather than getting some parasite infection. Or getting one of the more common scuba related injuries such as Nitrogen narcosis, Carbon monoxide contamination, DCS, PE etc.

So, when people ask me about all these rare exotic amoebas I tell them to drive and dive carefully and they'd be alright...

 

[lizardland]

There is speculation in Brett Gilliam's Deep Diving book that a well known cave diver became infected with it and either the physical effect or the knowledge that he had a degenerative brain disease led to bad decision making that ultimately led to him dying in mysterious circumstances on a dive. I am too lazy to walk the 6 feet to the bookshelf and get the details as I remember it sounding extremely fanciful and devoid of any evidence to back it up.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I was taught that fairly forceful injection of water up into the nose was required for infection, not just a little sprinkle of water into the nose.


Diving (cliff jumping), jet skis, water skis, are all examples of how you can get a large flush of water into your nose.

Also consider how many people do these activities on the daily. Infection rate for this illness is usually 10-20 people total a year across the entire US.

Unless you’re diving in a hot spring I’d not lose any sleep over this at all. If you’re diving in a hot spring then pay particular attention to keeping the water out of your nose.

That's my understanding of it too, though I'm sure you've seen as many weird things happen as I have, probably more since you work in the ED. I feel pretty sure that the "diving" in the reference I linked means jump-into-the-water diving, not compressed gas diving, but since they don't specifically say that I didn't want to assume.

Best regards,
DDM