this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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The woman contracted a fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba and died eight days after developing symptoms.

A Texas woman died from an infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba days after she cleaned her sinuses using tap water, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case report.

The woman, an otherwise healthy 71-year-old, developed "severe neurologic symptoms," including fever, headache and an altered mental status, four days after she filled a nasal irrigation device with tap water from her RV's water system at a Texas campsite, the CDC report said.

She was treated for primary amebic meningoencephalitis — a brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, often referred to as the "brain-eating amoeba." Despite treatment, the woman experienced seizures and died from the infection eight days after she developed symptoms, the agency said.

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[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

What I don't get about this is that a gallon of distilled water is like .99 cents at your local grocery store in the US. This is not a huge problem to acquire safe water to do this.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 2 points 3 days ago

Snorfing amoebae up one's nose turns out to have consequences.

[–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

This was also literally the plot of an episode of House.

Dunno why the downvote, the episode in question was 8.17, titled "We Need The Eggs". The patient developed a brain-eating amoeba infection by using tap water in a neti pot.

[–] DerpDerpingtonIsHere@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Stop cleaning your sinuses in general, your body creates that mucus for a reason.

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