Killed by...brain eating amoeba?

[Scuba Cobra]

Swimmer dies from rare brain-eating amoeba at North Carolina water park, reports say


I end up at Fantasy Lake Scuba Park about once a month, boat gets blown out, just want to get wet, whatever the case may be. How serious is this kind of thing? one in a million?

 

[GreggS]

This was not Fantasy Lake Scuba Park, but at Fantasy Lake Water Park at Hope Mills, NC just south of Fayetteville. A tragic event, none-the-less, though.

According to the news report I saw, it can occur in natural lakes and ponds when the temperatures get really high as they have in recent weeks. Ironically, it's the heat that draws people to the water to cool off.

Condolences to his family.

 

[Scuba Cobra]

This was not Fantasy Lake Scuba Park, but at Fantasy Lake Water Park at Hope Mills, NC just south of Fayetteville.

Condolences to his family.

Ah, I was unaware there was a Fantasy Lake Water Park and thought it was a typo.

 

[GreggS]

I had never heard of it until today, either. My wife and I were just at the scuba park this past weekend and we were wondering about it when we found out about the water park.

 

[Esprise Me]

One in a million. It's not that the amoeba is all that rare, but it's generally harmless unless it gets shoved way up your nose to your brain. This is why you need to use distilled water or saline with neti pots. I would think divers are at much lower risk than swimmers, who are already at very low risk.

 

[RyanT]

Not a zero risk, but I sure worry a lot more about getting the car to drive to work everyday.

 

[chris kippax]

Wasn't he surfing? When you fall off it is very common to get water blasted up your nose.

EDIT: Oops different incident

A Man Died After Being Infected With a Brain-Eating Amoeba. Here Are the Facts.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Quarries tend to be colder due to groundwater influence.

 

[JonasGreenFethr]

Quarries tend to be colder due to groundwater influence.

Not until you hit the thermocline, it’s like bath water right now...

 

[almostDIR]

according to wikipedia and similar sites it should not be life threatening unless the amoeba gets to the olfactory nerve (by getting the water deep into the nose to reach the nerve) and infects it starting to eat its way towards the brain.
just swallowing the amoeba water is not life threatening as I have understood though may cause some mild symptoms.

the scuba mask should prevent the water from getting deep into the nose so I assume the risk for scuba divers should be pretty trivial unless they remove the mask underwater and let the water get into the nose by inhaling through nose etc.

quite many cases which end up in headlines seem to be linked to using neti pots with contaminated tap water. has happened both in the USA and other countries so would be quite a risk to use them with unknown quality water...