Health Risk with PAM May 27th 2014Serious Health Risk: Brain-eating Amoeba! Posted on May 20, 2014 There’s something vile and dangerous in the water. Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, is commonly found in warm freshwater (like lakes, rivers and hot-springs) and can cause a rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) in Louisiana and the CDC confirmed the presence of Naegleria fowleri in two treated public drinking water systems in September-October 2013. This amoeba has been responsible for deaths in disinfected public drinking water supplies in Australia, Pakistan and Arizona. The infections were linked to the practice of piping drinking water overland, sometimes for hundreds of miles, that resulted in the water heating up, which decreased disinfectant levels. These conditions allowed the water and pipes to be colonized by Naegleria fowleri.
