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[UristMcDwarf]

I was excited about the possibility of our family moving to a nice, old house with gardens and a river nearby, but since I've had the pleasure of learning about this little ameoba, I want nothing more than to move anywhere else. I know there have been under 400 confirmed cases worldwide, and none in my state, but the thought of someone or myself falling into that river, as everyone else laughs at the silly predicament as I sit with the knowlage that they or me might die soon brings a tear to my eye and vomit to my throat. Any advice?   

[Meph]

Not really, as this fear is deeply irrational. No cases ever in your state, 400 cases in the medical history of the world, worldwide for all ~7 billion people.

I dont really understand how you can be scared of this, if there are so many other nice things to be scared about, like rabies or suicide bombers. They kill more people than this ameoba.

[martinuzz]

the chance for you to catch that amoeba is about the same as having an passenger jet drop from the sky, on the tip of your nose.

[DJ]

Anywhere you move would be just as dangerous, because you're more likely to be mauled to death by a pigeon than to get this amoeba, and pigeons are *everywhere*.

[SanDiego]

You can comfort yourself by the fact, that N. fowleri only lives in warm water that doesn't get treated by chlorine or such, like near outlets of waste water from some plant.

[Obsi]

I worry about it too.  It has me pretty adverse to visiting tourist attraction hot spring resorts and seedy looking hot tubs.

I was never concerned with it being in the river though.  The ones we always swim in are always so clear and filter through so many millions of gallons of water.

Looking it up now I see it can be in any water and there are cases in the United States where it was in the plumbing of municipal water systems.  Time to look up those brita style water filters I guess.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I was excited about the possibility of our family moving to a nice, old house with gardens and a river nearby, but since I've had the pleasure of learning about this little ameoba, I want nothing more than to move anywhere else. I know there have been under 400 confirmed cases worldwide, and none in my state, but the thought of someone or myself falling into that river, as everyone else laughs at the silly predicament as I sit with the knowlage that they or me might die soon brings a tear to my eye and vomit to my throat. Any advice?   

#YOLO

[UristMcDwarf]

I was excited about the possibility of our family moving to a nice, old house with gardens and a river nearby, but since I've had the pleasure of learning about this little ameoba, I want nothing more than to move anywhere else. I know there have been under 400 confirmed cases worldwide, and none in my state, but the thought of someone or myself falling into that river, as everyone else laughs at the silly predicament as I sit with the knowlage that they or me might die soon brings a tear to my eye and vomit to my throat. Any advice?   

#YOLO

ok

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I was excited about the possibility of our family moving to a nice, old house with gardens and a river nearby, but since I've had the pleasure of learning about this little ameoba, I want nothing more than to move anywhere else. I know there have been under 400 confirmed cases worldwide, and none in my state, but the thought of someone or myself falling into that river, as everyone else laughs at the silly predicament as I sit with the knowlage that they or me might die soon brings a tear to my eye and vomit to my throat. Any advice?   

#YOLO

ok

Seriously man, that's an unrealistic fear. if you have paranoia about it, actual paranoia, then we can't help you. However if it's just fear, don't worry about it. 400 confirmed cases world wide? You have little over a 0.000006% chance of getting this thing.

EDIT: that's 6 millionths of one chance.

[DeKaFu]

Having taken a course in parisitology, I can offer the following about Naegleria fowleri:

1. It really only lives in warm or hot water.
2. It's actually a really common species in the places where it lives. Common enough that thousands-to-millions of people are swimming in water containing it every year. Despite that, only a handful of people have been infected with it ever.
3. Part of the reason for this is that getting infected can only happen under super specific circumstances, which include snorting water way up inside your nose and having the amoeba survive and end up in exactly the right (wrong) place at the right time to latch on to and travel along your nerves, despite the fact it isn't adapted for this in the slightest because it's not even a parasite outside of these freak circumstances.

It's a scary thing to think of happening, but you could swim in infected water habitually for years and be perfectly fine.

[Remuthra]

Is this the one which crawls up your nose and eats your brain, or am I thinking of something else?

[Tiruin]

You can comfort yourself by the fact, that N. fowleri only lives in warm water that doesn't get treated by chlorine or such, like near outlets of waste water from some plant.

Not exactly! ^ ^

Though I'm unsure if I can give medical advice, I'd sincerely advise those who live in fear of this entity to research what it is, its typical habitat, and mode of transmission. Check it under parasitology. 

[LordBucket]

there are so many other nice things to be scared about, like rabies or suicide bombers.

They kill more people than this ameoba.

According to google, falling out of bed in the morning kills more people every year than this amoeba, ever.

[Tiruin]

Well that's because we're always subjected to gravity, and rather not in contact with this amoeba in that kind of...statistic, ever.

 

Cheers everyone, the #1 killer of everyone is gravity. Or force. Yet nobody blames these things. (Yeah I'm joking)

[Draignean]

Okay. Having just read up on the parasite, that sounds truly horrible.  Problem is that there is a laundry list of pathogens and parasites with truly horrible effects. Prions, for instance, those bastards are freaky and kill you in lots of horrible ways. Death by inability to enter REM sleep? What kind of sick bastard does that?

Anyway, off that topic, there are a lot of horrible things that can kill you. However, the odds of having this particular parasite punch your ticket are remarkably low. Roughly 20,000 people die every year due to lightning strikes, 669,000 died in 2001 due to car accidents, in 2012 8.2 MILLION people bit it due to cancer.

You're better off being terrified of swallowing chewing gum, as it might cause your appendix to explode.


There are a lot of good, healthy things to worry about. Grades, your physical health, whether the cute chemical engineer is actually into you, how you're going to pay for college, etc, are all valid worries. Worrying about an invisible (for all intents and purposes) creature eating your brain in your sleep is not a valid or healthy concern.