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.
So not just tap water but her RVs tap water. The attempt at scare-mongering - tap water - like it could happen to anyone is annoying.
You can’t use tap water straight for Neti pots. I’m pretty sure every single neti pot tells you to boil the water first.
I hope it tells you to let the boiling water cool, too. I feel like that’s an important step.
… cue the optometrist meme
I found it, sorry for the delay friends
What is the optometrist meme?
Optometrist - “So these are your new contacts. If they irritate your eyes, you can clean your eyes with boiled water”
He grabs me and makes me look him directly in the eyes.
Optometrist - “Look at me. Look at me! Boiled water. Not boiling water. Water that has been booked than cooked. Understand?”
*boiled then cooled. This phone is a nightmare for typing.
Booked then cooked sounds like a good album title ngl.
… booked than cooked?
Boiled than cooled. My phones autocorrect is a nightmare where I had to type most of this a single letter at a time
I updated my comment to have the meme
It doesn’t clean the sinuses as well. I personally run the boiled water through my soda stream, then directly into the face holes.
Which soda stream syrup do you use?
Maple.
I’m mentally hearing the blart from my jet as it hits peak carbonation, and mentally seeing the spray of water out the other nose and my god sir, you are a dilophosaur
Yes, it is a pretty common step to let boiled water cool before consuming it in any regard.
The article does, so the fact that the first comment got 34 updoots and is labelling this as fear mongering makes me sad that lemmy is becoming reddit faster than I thought
Way more people read the headline than the article itself, and the writers know that, but decided to only and specifically call it “tap water” in the headline. They knew it’ll get more clicks, and seemingly didn’t care about the people who will come away from it with a misconception.
We talkin’ ’bout the title. “… her RV’s tap water” at the end would be enough.
It tells you to use boiled water.
What’s the difference between a neti pot and taking a shower? I’m pretty sure I get water up my nasal cavity every time I shower. Is the neti pot warning a cya thing or is there a greater risk?
Big difference between a little water in your schnozz and a deep irrigation of your sinus cavities.
Use (cold) boiled or distilled water
Its the same amoeba you can get swimming in lakes. It doesn’t happen every time but it CAN happen. It is grossly ignorant to not be cautious of it
You’re much much more likely to die from your preferred transit method to the lake than to get an ammeoba from it.
For that matter basically every food you eat has a higher likelihood to kill you. From bacteria, contamination, improper storage, improper cooking, even choking. These are all significantly more likely.
My point isn’t to make you too afraid to eat, but to explain why it’s not “grossly ignorant” to not be cautious of it. It’s essentially a non-concern. Even not putting sunscreen on every single day is a bigger risk taking activity than the odds of getting a brain ammeoba at a lake.
My brother in christ. Its such an easy thing to prevent. Just because its not a massive safety risk doesn’t mean its not still dangerous. Some people have clean enough tap water and will be fine. Others that dont will read what youve written and think “oh it wont happen to me” and not take any precautions. Its not like you have to avoid lakes or using neti pots. Wear nose clips and use known sanitized water.
Everything you mentioned about food by the way is something that can be prevented
Your comment seemed to imply your solution was to never swim in a lake. Obviously you should boil your neti pot water. There are a lot of reasons to do that. Wearing a nose clip is plenty reasonable. I truly thought you meant never swimming.
That’s not true. I can’t prevent a company from making a canning mistake. I can’t prevent a company contaminating food with a wide variety of things from bacterial to chemical. Choking is by itself accidental, I doubt you’ll find many choking victims that were trying to choke and die. I don’t inspect the kitchen and practices of every restaurant I eat at. The fact of it is most of the things related to food safety are out of the hands of the consumer. Short of preparing everything yourself from scratch you can’t prevent these things from happening. Most deaths related to food safety are caused by producer mistakes, not consumers.
Is it more likely to come from reservoirs then it is from wells that tap the water table?
Possibly I think? I personally just wouldnt risk it. All it takes is once.
According to a search I performed several years ago (meaning that my information may be outdated and that I’m no expert), the relevant bacteria have never demonstrated the ability to travel through droplets such as go through shower heads.
Well, they’re not sure if the water came directly from the RV tank or the local water supply, so it certainly could have been tap water.
Sounds like the general idea is also just don’t use tap water directly out of the tap if you want to run water through your sinuses (which is where these infections come from). They aren’t saying that tap water is unsafe to drink. I don’t see this as fear mongering at all.
It could, with warming temperatures the bacteria is moving north. Showing up in areas unfamiliar with it
But you’re way more likely to get it by swimming and just don’t pour water up your nose
Buy Nestle’s hidden-branded renamed shit instead! That’s not literally just stolen tap water!