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Brain-eating amoeba found in Louisiana water

WWLTV-TV
Naegleriasis is an infection of the brain by the protist Naegleria fowleri, also called the "brain-eating amoeba.

DONALDSONVILLE, La. -- The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has confirmed the presence of a brain-eating amoeba at a water station in Ascension Parish.

The news comes as a meeting is going on in St. Bernard Parish where the same amoeba has also been found.

The Ascension Parish water station serves 1,800 residents in a small community north of Donaldsonville, La.

Officials have ordered a 60-day chlorine burn to eliminated any remaining threat.

Experts say the water is safe to drink, but they caution not to get the water up the nose.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every resident can take simple steps to help reduce their risk of Naegleria fowleri infection.

Preventative measures recommended by the CDC include:

•Do not allow water to go up your nose or sniff water into your nose when bathing, showering, washing your face or swimming in small hard plastic/blow-up pools.

•Do not jump into or put your head under bathing water (bathtubs, small hard plastic/blow-up pools); walk or lower yourself in.

•Avoid allowing children to play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers, as they may accidentally squirt water up their nose.

•Avoid slip-n-slides or other activities where it is difficult to prevent water going up the nose.

•Run bath and shower taps and hoses for five minutes before use to flush out the pipes. This is most important the first time you use the tap after the water utility raises the disinfectant level.

•Keep small hard plastic/blow-up pools clean by emptying, scrubbing and allowing them to dry after each use.

•Use only boiled and cooled, distilled or sterile water for making sinus rinse solutions for neti pots or performing ritual ablutions.

•Keep your swimming pool adequately disinfected before and during use. Adequate disinfection means:- Pools: free chlorine at 1 to 3 parts per million (ppm) and pH 7.2 to 7.8, and- Hot tubs/spas: free chlorine 2 to 4 parts per million (ppm) or free bromine 4 to 6 ppm and pH 7.2 to 7.8.

•If you need to top off the water in your swimming pool with tap water, place the hose directly into the skimmer box and ensure that the filter is running. Do not top off the pool by placing the hose in the body of the pool.Residents should continue these precautions until testing no longer confirms the presence of the ameba in the water system. Residents will be made aware when that occurs.

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