Please don't get water up your nose

I can not tell a lie. There has been something on my mind, and I am going to share it with you.

It is the brain-eating amoebas lurking in U.S. lakes and rivers. Yes, three people have died this past summer from the Naegleria fowleri: a single-cell organism that commonly floats around in warm bodies of water - mostly in southern states. Every year, apparently millions of people swim among these things oblivious to the risk of infection, and rarely get sick. Scientists say they have known about the rare condition of human brain infection for decades.

Swallowing or contact through open cuts apparently has no effect, but when people get water forced up their noses (which happens a lot diving, doing cannonballs, etc.) occasionally one gets more up the schnoz than what one thought. That innocent nasal injection could be laced with the dreaded amoeba, which then can possibly find its way up into the brain.

People thus infected suffer from terrible headaches, fever, vomiting, and other symptoms. There is no known cure, although scientists are working on some trials. A person is much more likely to die in a car wreck or by simply drowning at the lake than getting infected by the amoeba. But still, between one and eight people in this country per year have died from the amoeba brain infection since it was discovered in the 1960s.

Why do I care about this? Because I have spent a lot of time swimming, skiing, and boating in United States lakes and rivers. I would like to continue to do so. I jumped off a dock a few weeks ago, and playing around unprepared I didn't get my nose pinched off with my fingers. And a slight amount of water went up (I'm sure you have all had this happen to you) but this time, I was a little alarmed! I had read about the amoeba deaths.

Well I am fine, of course, but at all the water ski tournaments we were at this summer, and things such as that - kids are splashing around, rough housing, jumping in, and probably getting the occasional nose shot. And, the water got extremely warm even in Indiana this summer. Do we need to worry any more about this?

Probably not, but I think I'd like to help spread the word, and encourage kids to hold their noses or wear the nose grips some competitive swimmers wear - the less accidental nose shots, the better. and you Netti pot users - make sure the water has been boiled and cooled or whatever. I think someone in New York City had an issue with that very thing.

Some consolation is the fact that chlorinated pools and salt water areas (such as the river inlet in Florida pictured above, where we saw Manatees swimming) are apparently free from the amoebas. So we can swim with the dolphins and do OK. But water skiing is another issue for me - sometimes getting pulled up out of the water, or falling, one can take a nose shot. Do we have to worry about that? We'll have to start collecting more data. Let's all be careful out there.