A Brain Eating Amoeba

This little bastard.. Or shall I say very little bastard, has caused a child in Arkansas some serious problems. The bastard I refer to is, Naegleria Fowleri. It is a brain eating amoeba, found most commonly in fresh water sources throughout the USA.

Over the weekend, a child was swimming in a water park. Nothing further has been released about the child's condition, other than nausea and headaches.

This is deadly and rare, only 128 infections since 1962. Patients normally only live up to 5 days after this parasite makes it to the brain.

The water park in question has since closed it's doors, and will be replacing the pond floor with a hard surface before re-opening. The amoeba apparently comes from the dirt, and thrives in warm water conditions.

The amoeba travels most commonly up the nose of the victim, then travels to the brain.

Creepy right?

The CDC released this picture of how the amoeba lives and how it travels into the body.

So check this out, apparently the little bastard has a few separate forms. It has a roundish body in one picture, and in the other picture it has like little tentacles coming out it's butt.

I believe the technical term for the tentacles coming out of it's butt is called in Latin,

Nasticusassicushairs or Flagella

The nasty little bastard finds its way up the nose and enters the olfactory nerves causing primary amebic meningoencephalitis, (PAM) in healthy individuals the picture says.

It goes on to say something about trophies and flatulence.

Well it's not known exactly what transpires between the nose entry and where you must be to contract the little bastard. The doctors who have been interviewed about this particular amoeba, say, just hold your nose!

Well no, we are avoiding the problem. You see, water parks, often times, fill a pond full of rainwater, build a big slide, then charge people for the use of these slides.

So the picture to the right is what I think of, when I think water park.

Hundreds of individuals, who most likely said "I am going to the water park, I am not going to take a shower before I go."

How many of your friends tell you, they aren't going to shower before jumping in your pool?

Water parks don't only close due to an amoeba infection. They close due to fecal matter, E coli break outs and more..

Not to worry! If you can't catch the amoeba, you can catch a mouthful of someone else's shit.

It wouldn't be a normal Ashleign Blog without some no Bullshit steps to avoiding this.

1. Avoid nasty ass water.
2. Avoid Water Parks with ponds having no dirt barrier (Natural lakes, Ponds, etc)
3. Avoid Water Parks period, fill up your bathtub and swim there.
4. Hold your nose if you are going to swim in a sewage pond.
5. Restrict yourself to clean, well taken care of pools.
6. Wash your nose after swimming.
7. If you feel the need to be socially involved with hundreds of other people at a water park, keep your head above water.
8. Don't swim with open cuts or bruises.
9. Take a Shower! before and after the pool.

Listen, I am not trying to speak light of the situation. I realize that most times my blogs can be read as offensive.

Seriously, this is one deadly ass amoeba running around. You need to be careful. These tips and this information has been interpreted from the CDC. So half of this shit is good advice.

The safest precautionary I can provide:

Don't swim, in lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks. There are far worse in there, than this amoeba. I'm not talking about sharks or man eating catfish.