http://health.yahoo.net/articles/flu/neti-pot-deaths-linked-brain-eating-amoeba-tap-water
Think before you rinse!
That’s pretty insane. I’ve only heard of brain destroying amoeba around hot springs and in undeveloped water systems or wild lakes. If amoeba in the drinking water supply in Louisiana is killing people, I think they have a bit more to worry about than just neti pots. What about taking baths, filling up kiddie pools, washing your face? Should all people in LA be avoiding getting water in their nose at all times?
I was at hot springs once that warned of this, and it was well posted not to drink the water or even touch your face after entering the springs. It seems insane to call water potable when it contains this amoeba.
So, if you create a saline solution for rinsing, does that kill the bacteria? This is what I want to know… in case I ever go to Nola or rinse my nose with a pond.
Its an amoeba…not a bacteria.
You need to boil the water to kill it.
I doubt that just washing the face is a problem as the water does not go far up the nose…neti introduces water high up into the delicate sinuses which are vunerable.
When taking a bath/shower or a dip in a kiddy pool…just do not snort the water up your nose.
I expect this amoeba is in many water supplies across the US and other countries.
It is not harmful if drunk…your stomach acide will kill it.
There are all kinds of life forms in regular drinking water…or chemicals used to kill them.
The CDC says that it can be caused any time that people are submerged in infected water, and that they don’t necessarily have need to snort it. It even discusses baptisms and I’ve seen warnings at a hot spring against nose-picking or head dunking for this reason… so I was surprised to see that they’re only warning against neti pots and not all of the other face submerging activities that people do in their own homes on a daily basis…
But a bit more searching reveals that these people had private systems or were not in the city, meaning that they likely used a well. That makes a lot more sense. Municipal water supplies are normally screened and treated for organisms before distribution to households (hence the abundance of chlorine and other chemicals). I don’t have city water, so we have our well pump water tested yearly for abnormal growth/chemicals, but I know a lot of people who don’t bother at all. Rarely is anything found in the water in my area, but I can imagine that having a private water supply in the steamy backwaters of Louisiana could foster a lot of icky growth. When I use private water tanks at eco-houses or when I first went to India, I always closed my mouth and nose when I wash my face, almost instinctively. God only knows where that water was getting delivered from, but it wasn’t even drinkable. (By the end of a couple years of visiting I just gave up. It really didn’t matter if I brushed with bottle water, Delhi Belly finds it’s way whether you avoid it or not).
I agree that people should be careful, especially people with drinking water from an untreated supply. It’s pretty rare in my country though, The CDC said that they only had 32 cases in ten years, and only two of those were from ‘natural’ drinking supplies (the rest from swimming). That’s not many considering how many people swim in the amoeba-contaminated ponds, hot springs (myself included), and apparently even major resort lakes in the south. Roughly ten times that amount of people per year die from falling in the tub. I’m going to be a bit more careful tonight in the shower.
/uses filtered water when not at home anyway, since snorting chlorine is gross.
[QUOTE=suryadaya;68878]The CDC says that it can be caused any time that people are submerged in infected water, and that they don’t necessarily have need to snort it. It even discusses baptisms and I’ve seen warnings at a hot spring against nose-picking or head dunking for this reason… so I was surprised to see that they’re only warning against neti pots and not all of the other face submerging activities that people do in their own homes on a daily basis…
But a bit more searching reveals that these people had private systems or were not in the city, meaning that they likely used a well. That makes a lot more sense. Municipal water supplies are normally screened and treated for organisms before distribution to households (hence the abundance of chlorine and other chemicals). I don’t have city water, so we have our well pump water tested yearly for abnormal growth/chemicals, but I know a lot of people who don’t bother at all. Rarely is anything found in the water in my area, but I can imagine that having a private water supply in the steamy backwaters of Louisiana could foster a lot of icky growth. When I use private water tanks at eco-houses or when I first went to India, I always closed my mouth and nose when I wash my face, almost instinctively. God only knows where that water was getting delivered from, but it wasn’t even drinkable. (By the end of a couple years of visiting I just gave up. It really didn’t matter if I brushed with bottle water, Delhi Belly finds it’s way whether you avoid it or not).
I agree that people should be careful, especially people with drinking water from an untreated supply. It’s pretty rare in my country though, The CDC said that they only had 32 cases in ten years, and only two of those were from ‘natural’ drinking supplies (the rest from swimming). That’s not many considering how many people swim in the amoeba-contaminated ponds, hot springs (myself included), and apparently even major resort lakes in the south. Roughly ten times that amount of people per year die from falling in the tub. I’m going to be a bit more careful tonight in the shower.
/uses filtered water when not at home anyway, since snorting chlorine is gross.[/QUOTE]
I agree with you, drinking water must be so pure that it don’t have any bacteria so we very careful while drinking water.