Brain Eating Amoeba Spreads To Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana

It has been confirmed that the brain eating amoeba has reached Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, as samples taken from the local waterline have tested positive for the Naegleria fowleri parasite. At the moment, the authorities are ready to employ a series of complex measures in order to eliminate the parasite from the waterway.

The Terrebonne Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has confirmed the presence of Naegleria fowleri in the Terreborne waterline and will immediately begin the first line attack on the parasite, by enforcing a 60-day chlorination period. The high concentrations of chlorine should eliminate the parasite, but periodic testing will be performed in order to keep track of the evolution of the process. In the event that the chlorination will prove insufficiently effective, further elimination methods will have to be applied.

Terrebonne Parish is already the third Louisiana Parish to be contaminated with the deadly brain eating amoeba, after St. Bernard and Ascension Parish. At the moment, both of these regions are undergoing the chlorination procedure and hopefully, this entire ordeal will come to an end after the 60 days.

The first preventative measure that people usually take when hearing that the waterline is contaminated with a parasite is to buy massive amounts of bottled water for drinking. Ho

In order to make it through the lengthy chlorination period, the people from Terrebonne Parish need to know that the water from their public waterline is completely safe to drink. Furthermore, the chlorination procedure is not adding toxic doses of chlorine to the water, so it will be perfectly safe to drink it throughout the entire process.

What they do need to prevent, at all causes is to get the water from the public waterline up their noses, because this is the way that they can get contaminated with the parasite. Precisely because water can get up people’s noses in a wide variety of different circumstances, in spite of the fact that it is perceived as a undesirable situation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a series of guidelines for the St. Bernard and Ascension Parish locals, that could help them recognize the exact situations that they need to avoid.

Firstly, they need to be extremely careful when washing their face and taking baths and they need to use specialized sterile solutions that can be bought in drug stores for their neti pots, because these constitute a high risk situation.

Secondly, they need to avoid letting their children play in small plastic inflatable pools, around sprinklers and with water guns, because all of these use water from the public water supply and can easily lead to the children putting water up their noses. It is precisely because it is difficult to explain to children why this particular situation is especially dangerous that they need to be carefully monitored until Terrebonne Parish is declared Naegleria free.

It remains to be seen how effective the chlorination procedure will be be in Terrebonne Parish, but hopefully the parasite will be eliminated as soon as possible.
Image Source: talkvietnam