Naegleria fowleri, an excavate form of protist, is commonly found in fresh, warm bodies of water. In fact, it is estimated that up to seventy percent of fresh bodies of water in the United State are contaminated with this protist. Also known as "the brain eating amoeba , this parasite can be a major threat if one happens to be infected. When infected water is forced into the nasal cavity, be it from swimming, nasal lavage, religious rituals or any other means, the amoeba is introduced to the olfactory mucosa and cribriform plate(see figure 1), which allows for the amoeba to enter the central nervous system. From this point, the amoeba ascends along the nerve fibers to the base of the cranium. The amoeba then begins to feed on the brain, utilizing a specialized pro bosques protruding from the outer lay of the cell(see figure two).
Later on, the amoeba becomes pathogenic and PAM (primary amoebic meningoencephalitis) forms. This infiltration can cause hemorrhaging and necrosis in the olfactory bulbs. These bulbs, located it the forebrain, are tasked with detection of odor. People suffering from PAM commonly lose their sense of smell and taste. After the amoeba has greatly multiplied and consumed much of the olfactory bulbs, it moves through the mitral cell axons into the rest of the cerebrum. This can cause a number of symptoms including headache, stiffness of the neck and nausea. Later vomiting, seizures, delirium and irreversible coma follow. The actual cause of death is swelling of the brain due to infection. This leads to cardiac arrest, kidney failure and the shutdown of other major organs. Symptoms can occur anywhere from one to fourteen days after exposure and death from one to ten days after symptoms appear. The average is death fourteen days after exposure. The first recorded instance of PAM was in 1965 in Australia. It was linked to a fatal infection in 1961 and was found to be a new type of amoeba named Naegleria fowleri, na...