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.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      To be fair: some things you shouldn’t cheap out on (as noted by the deceased woman in this post).

      • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        Is that cheaping out? How do you know for certain that supposedly distilled water was properly distilled, stored, and never contaminated before or after opening?

        Bonus risk if you live in the United States where they’re gutting federal safety agencies

        • Taleya@aussie.zone
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          2 days ago

          If you’re gonna do that level of paranoia, the easy fix is to boil or distill your own water

        • OopsAllEarios@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I mean… I get the FDA isn’t the trustful advisory it once was, but if I had a few dollars to choose between the “sterilized” gallon jug and a nasal blast from a Texan KOA campsite, I know what’d I’d choose.

          • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
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            3 days ago

            I’d go with neither and use water I personally filtered and sterilized for the sake of certainty and safety even if it came from a jug labelled “distilled”.

            • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              Boiling the water will presumably kill the shit that killed this woman, it will however not remove minerals or other solids.

              You probably don’t care as much about the minerals or other dilute solids.

              Filtered is insufficient as it removes but doesn’t kill.

              You want sterilized water, boiled water, if you want to be real sure get distilled water and boil it, but at least for now water labeled distilled in the USA is good enough

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
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      3 days ago

      Boiled, yes. Filtered…well there’s so many different filtration methods of varying intensity the safest answer is “no”

      Because someone’s gonna use a britta jug…