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.
The amoeba can survive chlorination, that’s why boiled or distilled is necessary
If your city has brain eating amoeba in its water supply, I think you’ve probably got bigger shit to deal with. (See what I sis there, lol) Seriously though, yes. Distilled isn’t expensive enough that you shouldn’t be using it. Boiled city water still has enough chemicals in it to burn a bit.
Best to skip it.
The amoeba is pretty common, it’s just usually not a problem for stomach acids
It is rare in treated water. https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/can-you-get-a-brain-eating-amoeba-from-tap-water
But not unheard of. https://www.cdc.gov/naegleria/php/guidance/index.html
They always say boil your neri pot water but they never warn you to wash your hands … :(